A Pony Tale

So this is not a pony tale, or a story about a horse. But the story is kind of hilarious, as I couldn’t stop laughing when I told my husband about it for the first time last night. I actually don’t think I think I finished the story, so he will hear the end of the story just when you do!

So we begin the pony tale…

So when I lived in California I did some really great things. You know, living the life of a California girl spending a lot of time at the beach, having the desire to learn to surf, and I even got a little dog… I mean a Chihuahua because that’s what you do when you live in California.

I had another desire, I wanted long hair that I could curl, like those beautiful beach curls. And want to know what was popular at that time? Hair extensions.

So I did my research (okay spoiler alert, apparently not) bought 100% hair extensions that matched my hair color and highlights. I made an appointment to get them put (glued) in. It didn’t take long, and by the end, I had beautiful extensions.

I was really happy with them, it seemed like a great choice. And that was until I washed my hair the first time.

The extensions immediately looked terrible. And they felt worse. It felt like I was running my fingers, and brush through a pony tale, like you know, horsehair.

The painful truth.

And after doing some real research, just because a package says 100% hair, doesn’t mean it’s human hair. Actually, that is a big sign that it is horsehair. I also learned that it would say 100% HUMAN hair, if in fact there was human hair in the package.

Oh and then I was told that you should never wash extensions….um how are you supposed to wash your hair?

Anyway… That isn’t the worst part. The worst part was really painful.

The worst part was that it looked so bad, that I needed to get the extensions out of my hair. But they were glued in by this thick black glue.

I have sensitive hair, so it was painful. What we had to do was basically yank it out. So we got a good adhesive remover, and over the next several hours applied adhesive and gently as possible inch by inch we loosened the glue and pulled the strands until every extension was out.

What you see isn’t always what you get.

Sometimes we just don’t do our research well enough, and instead, take everything at face value. And then we end up in a ridiculous amount of pain.

What we see isn’t always what we get. Sometimes things are packaged and marketed in a way that seems better than it actually is.

Satan has a marketing plan too. and we need to be careful so that we don’t buy into it.

Satan’s marketing plan is a lie. And if it’s not a lie, it’s so distorted that it can’t even be compared to the truth.

It may seem really good. And it may even seem true, but if you really take time to think about it, and dig into it… his fingers prints will be all over the scheme.

Let’s Take A Look At  Eve’s Encounter With Satan.

Let’s take a look at when he meets Eve. He refers to God, as “God”, and not Lord God as He is previously called. Deceiving. Minimizing God’s holiness, and in doing so making His authority seem not so authoritative.

Satan wanted Eve to question God’s importance and did so by downplaying it.

Next, he tries to get Eve to question what God actually said to her. Have you ever read instructions and then basically forget what you read and then do it wrong because you forgot what the instructions said?

Eve does this here. God tells Adam to not eat any fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan just takes the truth and completely twists it here asking Eve if God really said not to eat from ANY tree in the garden.

See what he did there? He completely over-exaggerated the truth. God said one tree. Satan said any tree. Big difference. ( It would be like if God said don’t read that trashy romance novel, and Satan was like “did God say not to read any book?”)

And then Eve, trying to stand her ground, says God said not to eat from the fruit from the tree of the center of the garden or touch.

God never said anything about touching the fruit.

Did God Really Say?

I love this portion of Hebrews 6.

 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”^[And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.

So how do we know/remember what God really said and what He promises? How do we know His unchanging nature, and not downplay His everlasting authority?

By knowing Him. Knowing His character. Knowing He is Lord God, and what He says. And we know what God says by being in His Word, and treasuring the fact that what He says is truth, and firmly fixed in heaven.

I am always amazed at what the Bible actually says, and it says more than we sometimes think it does. His word is pretty clear on the way, the truth, and the life.  We want to take everything at face value, and not do enough digging to find the truth, but each decision matter. And how we go about what is marketed to us matters so that our decisions don’t leave us with the pain of “ripping our hair out”… or horsehair out (go ahead and laugh… I am!) literally and figuratively.

So no this was not a pony tale, but I hope you got a good laugh, but were more so encouraged to look at everything a little more carefully…especially God’s word.