I Wanna Be Like Mom

My oldest will be nine next month.  She is a little firecracker--tough and athletic while also tender and caring.  A few months ago, she mentioned that she wanted to get her hair cut like mine.  I keep my hair short and even have it shaved some in the back.  My hair is really thick and the texture is not the same as hers, and I haven't felt like the look would work for her.

The time she first asked, I told her no and she opted for a shorter do than normal but still longer than mine.  She then wanted to grow it out for a few months before deciding last night that she once again wanted to go short.  "I want my hair like yours.  I want to be like you."  I told her she was welcome to cut it short again but that I still didn't think she could do my cut.

When she got it cut today, she sat in the chair and told her hairdresser that she wanted it like mine.  Both her stylist and I agreed that it probably wasn't the right cut for her yet, but we compromised with a similar style that is just a little longer (and does not involve any shaving).

Why am I telling you this?  And what in the world does it have to do with God?  This is the women's ministry blog, right?....  Well, I'm telling you because I can't stop thinking about how she wants to be like me.  She wants to wear clothes like me (she loved to wear similar maxi dresses this summer); she wants her hair like mine.  It's easy to see the desire to be like me as cute (or maybe even annoying), but I keep seeing something more.

If she wants to be like me on the outside, then, chances are, she's becoming a lot like me on the inside.  My actions, my attitude, my relationship with Christ are all being shown to her in the day to day living, and she is becoming like me.  Part of me has known this from the day she was born, but it is something I still find overwhelming at times.

As she becomes like me, who is she becoming?  Is she becoming selfish? hot headed? gracious? judgmental?  welcoming? kind? like Jesus?

Somehow it's easier for me to see the things that need changing in me and take them lightly when I see only how it affects me.  But when I see its ripple effect--how it trickles into my children's lives, my husband's life, even my Facebook friends' lives, then it wakes me up.  I don't want my sins to be carried into the next generation.  I don't want people to look at me and see me.  And I don't want my children to look at me and want to be like me.  I want them to see Jesus, and I want them to want to be like Him.

(I know, I know, that doesn't change the hair cut....But, maybe it will change me....)

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (I Samuel 16:7)

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

About five years ago, my husband came home from The Home Depot with two baby grapevines for us to plant. It was so… random.

1. We don't really garden or landscape. I mean... I have more of a purple thumb than a green thumb... I kill everything. Honestly, I'm pretty impressed that we have kept the one bush in our front yard alive as long as we have.
2. Grapevines?!!? Why a grapevine? Who plants grapevines???

But he was excited, and when he's excited then I have learned to let him roll with it. Little did I know that those two grapevines have turned out to have the best spiritual lessons… ever. I'll share just one...

My hubby, new baby, and I went on a trek to Colorado to visit his brother. While we were gone, my brother stayed at our house (at the time he was living with my parents so it was nice to have his "own" place for a couple of weeks) and he agreed to water the plants while we were gone. I actually was making a feeble attempt to keep a rosemary plant alive on the porch (yeah... it's dead now) and we had those two grapevines right next to it.

Well, I sorta neglected to mention to my brother to water the grapevines (see... evidence already that I'm not such a good gardener) but luckily for one of the vines it was next to the rosemary plant so he just sorta watered them both. The other vine... well, let's see: a Texas summer. no water for two weeks. Yeah, it was crunchy and crispy when we returned.

Why I watered it... I still have no idea. Probably because I was too lazy to take it out of the big barrel thing we had it in. So, I watered it. Every day. Just... cause. And turns out...

it was alive.

The branches had no leaves, no fruit, no appearance of life. But it the vine itself... was alive.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Even though someone might appear spiritually dead. fruitless. worthless. does not mean that the LIFE of Christ is not still alive within them. does not mean that they do not have the potential to still bear fruit. does not mean that they are to discarded from our lives, tossed into the trash of our souls, and forgotten as a could-have-been Christian friend.

But it could mean that they just need water.

Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. John 4:14

And some patience. Offer those people the Water of Life every day even if they still don't seem to be "alive", or bearing fruit, and especially when they don't appear worthy of The Water. And offer it to them after they begin to show signs of life again... after a small bud of fruit appears... after they might show signs of being "worthy" (ha- as if any of us are worthy of That Water)!

One small note to close on about this grapevine... after the grapevine came back to life, we "nicknamed" it after a friend of ours that was spiritual "dead", that was not bearing any fruit, that appeared worthless and unworthy... in our hopes that her life would bear the same testimony.

And her life is slowly, slowly turning towards The Life... just as slowly as that precious grapevine of ours recovered. But look at our two grapevines now...

you would think that the smaller of the two is the one that went unwatered that summer, but no... the huge, flourishing vine with seven bundles of grapes on it... that is the one that struggled. that didn't have any fruit. that appeared dead. Turns out... it just needed some water.

“People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.” Mark 2:17