My six year old girl has a daily concern…her hair. She runs to the big mirror in our bathroom and looks at her lovely locks and beautiful bangs every morning. She tries to manuever her hair to just the right look. If she can’t quite get it perfect she often has a mini-meltdown that combines tears and words like “my hair!”
When my wife is there she handles it with a quick verbal scolding and an even quicker hairbrush and curler. When my wife is not there I do my best to manage her mane. But my best, more often than not, falls short according to kindergarten Kailey standards.
It’s at these times I ask Kailey, “What’s more important your heart or your hair?” Finally, reluctantly, she’ll blurt our “My heart!”
And then my poor little girl will have to endure a sermonette for Christianettes about the importance of loving God with your heart and not worrying about “little things” like whether or not your hair is just perfect for school. In these little chats I often remind Kailey of what God reminded Samuel of in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.”
I don’t think my sermons are getting through quite yet.
Last week as I pulled up to Kailey’s school she quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and scrambled to the front seat where she twisted the rear view mirror to check out her hair. I asked the standard question, “Kailey, what’s more important, your heart or your hair?” While staring into the mirror with a great big smile on her face she declared, “My teeth!”
Oh no.
