What Did You Do To Your Eyebrows?

By Julie Fuller

I just don’t understand why my boys do the crazy things they do.  Alex was around 8 years old; we were getting ready for Wednesday night church. I was standing in the living room when he came strolling around the corner missing his eyebrows!  Now, Alex has dark brown hair and the sudden disappearance of his eyebrows was so shocking all I could do was repeat, (in a high pitched screeching voice) “What happened to your eyebrows?” I probably said it 20 times before it hit me that his older brother must have had something to do with it because he pulled this stunt several years before.  The only difference is he has light colored hair so the lack of eyebrows didn’t look quite so ridiculous.  
I was certain Logan had something to do with his brother’s new Frankenstein forehead because this is not a common practice. You don’t see many boys walking around without eyebrows.  The next phrase I repeated (well, mostly yelled as I walked across the house) “Logan what did you do?”  Logan came out of his room bewildered because he didn’t know what was going on.  I said, “Logan, you did this to your brother!” Logan took one look at him and began to laugh, which did not sit well with me.  Then he kept repeating, “I didn’t do it.” I asked Alex, “Did Logan shave off your eyebrows?” he said “no”. I falsely accused Logan of this crime before I had gathered any evidence or checked the facts. This was not one of my finest mom moments…apologies ensued.

For some of us (including myself), there is something deep inside that struggles with the need to be well thought of.  A false accusation or an untruth believed about us gets ahold of our mind and runs us into the ground.  Now, most people have a desire to clear up a misunderstanding or speak up if they are falsely accused.

But the thing I am talking about is rooted in sin, (sin that Jesus continually called the Pharisees out on) it’s an all-consuming fixation on setting the record straight or making sure our reputation is flawless or that others think good things about us. We are caught in a futile pursuit for the approval of man.  It’s futile because we will never be able to sustain it because it is fickle; it is based on the latest performance and outcome.  Even those closest to us will unjustly disapprove of us or believe untruths about us at times. Seeking human approval will never give us the security and acceptance we desire.
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So how do we escape this destructive thinking? By remembering what the Lord says about us, because of Christ, His love and sacrifice we are a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
And because of this, we are:

Blessed, holy, blameless, loved, adopted into God’s family,
forgiven and redeemed
Ephesians 1:3-14

We will never be rejected, forsaken or forgotten
Psalms 94:14, and Isaiah 53:3

The Creator of the universe delights and sings over us
Zephaniah 3:17

We are treasured and engraved on the palm of His hand
Isaiah 49:16

There is nothing that can separate us from His love
Romans 8:35-39

These are the things that must fill our minds when we are tempted to place more value on what others think of us than what the Lord says about us.  This is what it looks like to “take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).  In this obedience resides the joy and true acceptance our hearts long for.  It can only be found in the unearned, undeserved acceptance of our loving Heavenly Father.

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