Wash That Greed Right Outta My Heart

(This was originally posted in 2009 but thought it was a great Thanksgiving reminder)

For you younger readers this was a jingle from a hair color commercial that said “I’m gonna wash that grey right outta my hair.”

With that said I’m going to tell you a story. I use to think of myself as a very generous person until one day it turned out I wasn’t. As you know every jewel applies to me and it’s kind of sad how much material I give the Lord.

I, like most of you are living by faith and think about every penny I spend. Being the vain woman I apparently am, I was concerned about the skunk streak making its way down the center of my head, another words my grey hair.I could not justify buying hair color over milk but only because my thirsty child was standing next to me. A few days later my sister called to tell me she bought me four boxes of hair color that she got on sale. I was so excited! You would have thought I won a new car. I was praising the Lord for once again being the God of more than enough.
I would have dark brown hair for the next four months and did not have to hold a grudge about buying silly things like milk and bread.

The first and second month went by without a hitch, the problem showed up on month three.  I was telling my roommate that it was time to color my hair and she said “I really need to color mine too.” I am not the only vain woman out there and this gives me comfort.

You can imagine what happened next. The Lord told me to give her my other box of hair color as we used the same one. You would have thought He asked me to give away a new car. I reminded the Lord that after I colored my hair I would only have one box left and if I gave it away I would have none.  I know... I was just as shocked as you are when I heard this conversation. I thought about it and came up with, NO.

If she wanted to color her hair the same God that provided for me could do it for her. This was my spiritual justification. I was so overcome with guilt I told my teenage daughter about this selfish battle going on within me, she just looked at me and said “who are you?”

I could not believe I was holding out on my friend over a two dollar box of hair color!!

I didn’t bother to look in the bible for any scriptures to back up my greed I figured that was a lost cause. I thought about looking up scriptures for my roommate about the sick joke she was playing telling me she needed to color her hair too. I was onto her game; she wasn’t going to jack me out of a box of L'Oréal.

I realized I should have tried Matthew 6:3-4 When I give to the needy I do not let my left hand know what my right hand is doing, so that my giving may be in secret. Then my Father who sees what is done is secret will reward me.

Apparently someone else had this struggle too and decided not to talk about it even with themselves.

The shame and guilt was more than I could stand I stormed out of my room and practically threw the box at my friend. I said “here you can have it, color your hair, I don’t want it.”

My last hope was that she would fight me on this huge sacrifice and great gesture of sharing, but she just smiled and said “thanks.”

I finally got a grip on myself and apologized to God for not being grateful that not only did He provide more than enough but He gave me the chance to bless someone else too. I claimed temporary insanity and was glad to get this greed thing out of my heart.

It’s funny that we can believe God for the big things in life and then get tripped up by something so small. Maybe it’s just a way to let off some emotional steam.

As always my Jesus is sweet to me and ended this conversation on a positive note, He said in

Psalm 34:10 "because I seek the Lord, I shall not lack any beneficial thing." ~  Even hair color!