Today I learned that the truth hurts.

Today I got my haircut. I know this doesn't sound too exciting but this was the first time this hairstylist cut my hair and she surprised me. She told me something about my hair that I hadn't heard before- the truth. You know what? The truth hurts. You see, when I was in high school and college I had really easy hair. It was the kind of hair that looked good with relatively little effort. However, after both of my pregnancies, my hair changed. It is no surprise that pregnancy does strange things to your body (like how you can weigh exactly the same as you did before but you still have to go up a size anyway- how does that happen?). My hair went from stick straight to curly. My hair became very curly except for the very top which is still stick straight. To say that my hair can stick out in very strange ways is an understatement. I believe that we all deserve a quick and easy hairstyle. Don't you? I am sure that since I believe that, it must be true. Right? I sat down in the chair to discuss my hair and told the lady that my hair was curly and looked bad no matter what I did to it. After listening to me, she proceeded to tell me that I was doing something wrong! I told her that I used the smoothing products but they didn't work. I told her I tried to blow dry my hair straight but it still curled in odd ways. She said that what I had told her just didn't make sense. How dare she contradict me? I know my own hair, right? I know how to live my life! I couldn't believe she was questioning my methods. To be honest, at this point I was apprehensive about having her cut my hair. However, I noticed that as she cut my hair she was really putting a lot of care into it. She explained what she was doing and why she wouldn't do what I had asked of her. Then she took half an hour to teach me how to style my hair. I hate to admit this but the truth finally came out. I didn't want to put the time into working with my hair. She then told me point blank "you have curly hair and you just have to put the time into styling it". What I wanted her to tell me was that a really good haircut would solve all of my problems. I really, really, really wanted to hear that it was possible for me to roll out of bed each morning and with no effort have perfect hair every day. She told me the truth: my hair needs time and attention to be its best. There are no shortcuts. Well that made me think about what we are discussing at church. We have been talking about growing spiritually. We have been talking about quiet times, prayer partners and seeking God's plan for each one of us. I realized that there are no shortcuts with God either. Just because I wanted my hair to be quick and easy, it didn't make it so. If I don't want my hair to stick out in strange places, I need to put the time into styling it. It is the same with my spiritual life. Just because I really, really, really want to be closer to God, it won't happen without me putting forth the effort. The truth is that I need to take the time to read the Bible every day; I need to find others to keep me accountable and pray with me; I need to seek out God. God has promise us that if we seek after Him, He will show himself to us. There is no doubt in my mind that being closer to God will make each day better than I could imagine. However, I needed to realize the truth that it won't just happen. Making the decision to grow spiritually won't make me grow; taking the time to act on the decision to grow spiritually will bring me closer to God- and that's the truth.