get out your hair brush, it's time to tame that fro.

Today I wore my hair curly. But seriously, what inspiring thing can come from having your hair one way or the other? Well it's not so much that as the fact that I just looked in the reflection of my laptop screen and saw myself (specificaly my curly hair that looks like a lion's mane in the wind), and I laughed. This brought to mind the scripture in James 1:23-25 that references a man seeing himself in the mirror and then walking away and forgetting his appearance. Now, I'm not condoning that you constantly look at yourself in the mirror or are always concerned with your physical appearance for that would be vanity..instead I am referencing your spiritual appearance--what we are to look like as reflections of God. We are made in His image--but to carry this a little further, we should be attempting to become like the image of God (that is, Him as a Being, His actions, His wisdom and ways, etc.). Specifically this passage in James is talking about being doers of the Word and not hearers only. And the Word is our source to uncover the image of God and Christ and how we are supposed to be. So, no, do not walk around thinking about your curls and tan (or lack of, like myself), but rather think about Christ, His life, and how we can mimic His life and His actions as our own. I challenge you not to make your life a Bible-on-Sunday-only lifestyle, but strive to reflect on this "mirror" of the Word daily--make sure that you're keeping everything tidy in that reflection--and most importantly, when you use this word daily don't just make it a momentary glance, but a lifestyle. I can at least say for my life that if I'm not constantly reminding myself of what I'm striving for and what I'm supposed to look like as this 'reflection in the mirror' through the Word, I find it more challenging to react as I should in challenging situations (like pride, temptation, anger, revenge, gossip, etc...the things we deem 'little' sins which are not so little--as all sin separates us from God and keeps us from the image we should be reflecting. [a big one for me is James 1:26]) We are human, yes. We err, yes. But we are called to reflect/mimic/become like something much greater and to try to err as little as possible--applying the Word helps us to accomplish this...yes.

Onward.