Bare with me for a bit as I draw a parallel. Recently, I worked with a client wanting her hair to be more red. Not flaming red...just more red. Our starting palate was more of a chocolate brown, so getting a brighter red entwined in those curly tresses was going to take a little correction in the depths of the hair. Meaning, I would need to strip some of that chocolate out before trying to infuse the red. Well, I took the shortcut and it didn't work so well. Good thing I had a sweet, understanding client. I really did think this would be the easiest on her hair (natural curl is very porous and doesn't like a lot of chemical action), and would satisfy the look we were going for. I was wrong. I brought her back into the salon to strip the hair of color (like I should have done in the first place) by a bit of bleaching, using the baby lites technique. This would be the least damaging, and would give her the red she wanted, after rinsing the hair and adding red into the lifted pieces along with the rest of the hair.
I rushed the process. When I checked the hair, I noticed the red was deepening and I didn't want it to get so dark that we'd be faced with virtually the same issue of not being noticeable as it blended into the darker hair. I didn't trust the process. She had to come back a SECOND time. No, I'm not proud of that. In fact, I'm a little embarrassed because of it. This time, I was going to make sure we got what we wanted, and so, after doubling the dye load and applying triple the normal application, I left the product on the amount of time instructed. This time it came out beautiful! I did need to tone down the roots a bit since it had been a month since I'd seen her last and the root area, well, it was virgin hair. Hair that loved that double dye load. And that's another story. It did eventually end well. Thank God!
My point is that if I'd trusted the process to begin with, she would not have had to make so many trips to the salon. And I wouldn't have egg all over my face. Whatever that means...
Walking through life, we tend to travel the same road many times over, simply because we don't trust the process and the results that come with the tried and true. It's as if we expect life to throw roses our way, but forget those roses also have thorns. We seem to give up way too easily. Sure, we try to figure things out for the good of everyone. We just don't wait for the process to prove trustworthy. It would seem as though patience and perseverance are in short supply. They're not, you know. We've just got to remember the path was walked out for us long ago. A record of how to live life, fully whole, was made for us. We were given a road map, as it were, to living life. One of the reasons Christ came to earth was to show us how to walk upon injustice, how not to take into account a wrong suffered, how to love instead of hate. He walked, as a man (fully God and fully man, I Timothy 2:5), through everything we'll ever have to face...and more.
Years ago, before the internet, I heard people make the comment when becoming a parent for the first time, "I wish baby's came with a rule book." They did/do come with a rule book. It's the same rule book we follow throughout life. It's called the Bible. But you knew that, didn't you? You just didn't think about it as being something one would go to for instruction on raising a child.
We've got to trust the process. It won't fail us. However, when we do fail to trust, we can ask for do-overs. Like I did with my client. And depending on how long you've made things happen the way you want them to, will decide if a do-over is allowed. Sometimes, those we've messed with will walk away, but God remains faithful as He asks us to consider a different outcome. He surely must shake His head at us (me) from time to time.
Most of the things I blog about are things I'm experiencing at the moment. They are my inspiration. So, if the shoe fits...I guess I'll share mine with you...here, in Mary's World.
