It all began when I first met Chad. I worked at Waffle House and loved to meet so many different people from all walks of life. I did my best to leave an impression on everyone I served and made it my desire to remember names, faces and situations. I wanted them to feel as special as they were. Sometimes I was intimidated by some of the people that came in, but before the meal was over, we shared experiences that would change my life, but none compeled me like the impact Chad made. For three months, every Saturday night, he and his cousin would come to eat after being out to clubs. I would wait on them and we did not talk much at first but one night I put some loose change in the jukebox and we struck up a conversation that I can remember like yesterday. We compared music and then out of the blue he asked me how long my hair was. I thought to myself that I have now encountered some freak that is socially disturbed! He could not tell the length of my hair at the time because of the little black head scarves we wore as our uniform. I looked at him and all I could say was well if you come back next week you will see! At that time it was just long enough to pull in a tiny ponytail, with some side pieces falling towards my face. I thought about that for a whole week, not understanding his reasoning. This was in December of 2005 and we began dating in January. It was a few years later before I even understood.
Lesson on Submission
This world has changed the mindset of women all around. I am not against women have some independence but the Bible does speak about submitting to your husband, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing Ephesians 5:22-24. We should love our husbands so much to desire to be under the protection of submission. This day and time has convinced women that they can make it without the man and many times women find submission hard because they can not trust that the man has her best interests at heart as he leads them though life. With premarital sex on the rise and other forms of sin that we are now desensitized to, many women have lost trust altogether and than when she marries, she has herself in a situation that she can not fully control anymore. When one has been damaged by the lack of trust in the past, she has a hard time submitting. Now the Bible continues to say, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: Ephesians 5:25-29. If the man is loving his wife as Christ loves the church and as himself, he will care, nourish, and cherish her. This is not giving him the authority to abuse, neglect or dictate her every move. He is the head of the home and was given this authority by God Himself. Together you work out the plan that best suit you and nowhere does it say that the woman has to bow to him or do ever thing he demands from her. Like our relationship with God, so should our relationship with our spouse. Not one sided and selfish. God has to keep us in check and many times will do so through he man, since he is next in the chain of command. This does not imply we do not hear from God, but face it ladies we are so vulnerable at times and our emotions can rule us and allow for insubordination to kick in, as well as stubbornness and rebellion! We need to first understand, God wants to protect us and He does this by telling the women to be submissive to her husband and not over rule his judgment. There is reason for this and the Bible clearly states it, For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 1 Timothy 2:13-14. God keeps order and so should we. A man that is serving God is easy to submit to and God would not have it any other way!
I said all that to give a general understanding to the Biblical meaning of submission. It is not a horrible word the world deems it to be. I said all that to say this, it looks good on paper, but is not as easy as it looks! What does this have to do with hair you are wondering, well everything! It was in 2007 that Chad began talking to me about the Apostolic Pentecostal faith and his mom would come visit and she would always talk about not cutting hair. They would try so hard to explain things to me but I learned over time that some things only God can explain! I was not one to submit to any authority and trust me I am still daily having to ask God to help me to fully submit. Chad had asked me a few times to not cut my hair and I fought him like it was a demeaning thing for him to ever ask of me. My attitude stunk and I told him there would be no way in this world he was gonna tell me what to do. It is my hair and I will do what I want with it. I would purposefully cut it to rebel against him. He had showed me the scripture on it and I still could not see it. 1 Corinthian 11 specifically says, But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. I was not understanding what this meant and so I continued ignoring his wish. Now granted, my hair at this point had now reached a bit below my shoulder but after one last request from him about not cutting it, I asked for money and made the appointment and decided I was chopping it off! A month prior I had dyed it to nearly black and now I was headed to get it permed and cut!
The Day of Conviction
I arrived early for my appointment, which was in July, and was so excited because it had been years since I had a perm! My last hair cut was in March of 2008 and my mission was to come out super sexy with my hair transformed and to show Chad that I can do what I want. I had no idea he had been praying for me to have a change of heart. I helped pick out the size rollers I wanted for the perm and sat in the chair and laughed with the ladies. The girl doing my hair I had known from school and I was talking about my husband and his faith and she began telling me she had met our pastor and he had given a few other ladies some Bible Studies. As we chatted I began to feel nervous. I had the Holy Ghost and as the girl picked up the scissors I began to feel a type of fear come over me. It was the fear of the Lord and I loudly said NO. I can not have you cut my hair. She looked at me a bit weird but placed the scissors down and went on to do the perm. I sat there confused and had no idea what really happened. We did not talk about it, but I can say, when she and the ladies were talking about those Bible studies and the way this man and his wife were, it was like the word of God pricked my heart. It was not the scriptures in 1 Corinthians that hit me, but it was the ones I had read about submitting to your husband that I remembered! See we were not married yet, but had children and knew we needed to make it right in Gods eyes. I knew one day he was going to be my husband and I had to do some soul searching to line up with Gods word. I did get the perm and went home to tell Chad all that happened.
The Miraculous
One night at a Bible study, sometime late July or early August, I heard the ladies talking about hair and I asked questions and was still not getting answers. I told them of my conviction and they rejoiced with me but I am not one that can follow through things unless I fully understand. My hair was so damaged from the perm and I was losing hair and was really considering getting all the perm and dye cut out anyway. I had not understanding so surely it would be best to make it look better. Yes that is what I was going to do, I thought before I left the Bible Study, but I heard the pastors daughter talking about praying for her hair. Who ever heard of such stuff! It is just hair, but she spoke with enthusiasm about how she asked God to stop the growth because it was as long as she wanted and He did. This intrigued me. I went home that night and ran some bath water and told Chad I was going to study. I took my Bible and soaked in the tub. I was in there singing and and praying as I read the Word. I did this about every time I took a bath, it was like my prayer closet. I was washing my hair and more was falling out and I cried out to God about it. I simply said, God I have read it over and over and do not understand, but I have ruined my hair. the chemicals I put on it out of rebellion have damaged it and I do not know what to do. Lord if you just show me and give me a sign then i promise you I will never cut my hair ever again, but God I want to cut all this mess out of it so bad. How can I undo the damage I did to it? I began praying over my hair and telling God that Chad does not want me to cut it but something in me wants to. Just show me Lord!
When I woke Chad was looking at my funny. He asked what I did to my hair and not knowing what he meant I went to the bathroom. Never have I ever seen anything like this! My hair was natural. All the damage was gone. I mean there was no perm, no color and even more amazing I had under growth that measured six inches! My hair grew six inches over night!. There was no faded line from where the hair color was darker or lighter for that matter. It was amazing! All the frizz was gone and my hair was thicker than before. I had my all natural hair back! I could not believe it and kept running back to the mirror to check again. God gave me a sign and even though I did not understand completely, I now knew why is Chad asked about my hair in the beginning. It is simply a God thing and he wanted to have a woman who would be willing to let go of society's normal and become Gods extraordinaire! God reminded me of the scripture, it is YOUR glory and you are the glory of the man! God let me know that I should have listened to Chad long ago and I am to show my submission to him by having long hair! It is one of the greatest testimonies of my life. Do I understand now? Maybe not as much as I desire, but I am studying more and more and although I can not sit and manipulate the scripture to meet any certain need, but I do know that God showed Himself in a mighty way that man can not imitate and I take great joy and pleasure in knowing He heard my cry. I do believe that the hair is a representation of submission to authority and I do know that many will argue this until the coming of Christ, but I will tell you, there is power with having such glory! Nothing can change what I feel about it and no matter the ridicule I get from those who seem to think I am brainwashed, I will keep my vow to God! So here you have it, my testimony and I do hope you understand that I do not serve a dead God, but one that is alive! If he is willing to 'resurrect' damaged hair, how much more do you think He is willing to do for you?!
The Day of Conviction
I arrived early for my appointment, which was in July, and was so excited because it had been years since I had a perm! My last hair cut was in March of 2008 and my mission was to come out super sexy with my hair transformed and to show Chad that I can do what I want. I had no idea he had been praying for me to have a change of heart. I helped pick out the size rollers I wanted for the perm and sat in the chair and laughed with the ladies. The girl doing my hair I had known from school and I was talking about my husband and his faith and she began telling me she had met our pastor and he had given a few other ladies some Bible Studies. As we chatted I began to feel nervous. I had the Holy Ghost and as the girl picked up the scissors I began to feel a type of fear come over me. It was the fear of the Lord and I loudly said NO. I can not have you cut my hair. She looked at me a bit weird but placed the scissors down and went on to do the perm. I sat there confused and had no idea what really happened. We did not talk about it, but I can say, when she and the ladies were talking about those Bible studies and the way this man and his wife were, it was like the word of God pricked my heart. It was not the scriptures in 1 Corinthians that hit me, but it was the ones I had read about submitting to your husband that I remembered! See we were not married yet, but had children and knew we needed to make it right in Gods eyes. I knew one day he was going to be my husband and I had to do some soul searching to line up with Gods word. I did get the perm and went home to tell Chad all that happened.
The Miraculous
One night at a Bible study, sometime late July or early August, I heard the ladies talking about hair and I asked questions and was still not getting answers. I told them of my conviction and they rejoiced with me but I am not one that can follow through things unless I fully understand. My hair was so damaged from the perm and I was losing hair and was really considering getting all the perm and dye cut out anyway. I had not understanding so surely it would be best to make it look better. Yes that is what I was going to do, I thought before I left the Bible Study, but I heard the pastors daughter talking about praying for her hair. Who ever heard of such stuff! It is just hair, but she spoke with enthusiasm about how she asked God to stop the growth because it was as long as she wanted and He did. This intrigued me. I went home that night and ran some bath water and told Chad I was going to study. I took my Bible and soaked in the tub. I was in there singing and and praying as I read the Word. I did this about every time I took a bath, it was like my prayer closet. I was washing my hair and more was falling out and I cried out to God about it. I simply said, God I have read it over and over and do not understand, but I have ruined my hair. the chemicals I put on it out of rebellion have damaged it and I do not know what to do. Lord if you just show me and give me a sign then i promise you I will never cut my hair ever again, but God I want to cut all this mess out of it so bad. How can I undo the damage I did to it? I began praying over my hair and telling God that Chad does not want me to cut it but something in me wants to. Just show me Lord!
When I woke Chad was looking at my funny. He asked what I did to my hair and not knowing what he meant I went to the bathroom. Never have I ever seen anything like this! My hair was natural. All the damage was gone. I mean there was no perm, no color and even more amazing I had under growth that measured six inches! My hair grew six inches over night!. There was no faded line from where the hair color was darker or lighter for that matter. It was amazing! All the frizz was gone and my hair was thicker than before. I had my all natural hair back! I could not believe it and kept running back to the mirror to check again. God gave me a sign and even though I did not understand completely, I now knew why is Chad asked about my hair in the beginning. It is simply a God thing and he wanted to have a woman who would be willing to let go of society's normal and become Gods extraordinaire! God reminded me of the scripture, it is YOUR glory and you are the glory of the man! God let me know that I should have listened to Chad long ago and I am to show my submission to him by having long hair! It is one of the greatest testimonies of my life. Do I understand now? Maybe not as much as I desire, but I am studying more and more and although I can not sit and manipulate the scripture to meet any certain need, but I do know that God showed Himself in a mighty way that man can not imitate and I take great joy and pleasure in knowing He heard my cry. I do believe that the hair is a representation of submission to authority and I do know that many will argue this until the coming of Christ, but I will tell you, there is power with having such glory! Nothing can change what I feel about it and no matter the ridicule I get from those who seem to think I am brainwashed, I will keep my vow to God! So here you have it, my testimony and I do hope you understand that I do not serve a dead God, but one that is alive! If he is willing to 'resurrect' damaged hair, how much more do you think He is willing to do for you?!
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