I’ve got mean hair.  I know this from experience, and because I’ve been told so by more than one hair stylist.  It is very coarse.  It does the opposite of what I want it to do.  The older I get, the curlier it gets, and grayer.  The gray has only made it more coarse.  It is very thick, and did I mention gray???  As a teenager, I would proudly tell my friends that “my hair has just enough curl to give it body” but those days are long gone.  After many years of wearing it long, I finally went in to chop it off in 2000.  The stylist actually called over all the other stylists in the salon to lay witness to my hair – that is what a phenonoma it is.  Lovely.  Not.

In order to try to get it to act nice, I’ve wore it very short, very long and now shoulder length. I spend an obscene amount of money on color, stylists, product and hair tools.  I just can’t decide if my hair does better short or long. It’s exhausting, really.

All this hair business I deal with every day got me to thinking about how unruly I can be and have been in life. Any attempt to straighten up my mean hair would be just as futile as it would have been to straighten up my mean girl self when I was a teenager.  It would have been impossible. No amount of work or modification in behavior can redeem a person no more than hair gel can fix mean hair.

Whether we were good girls or bad girls, we all still have a deep need for the present of redemption. Salvation is free and available to everyone.  Once Jesus changed my heart, my behavior followed suit.

Perhaps the God is speaking to you about coming into a relationship with Him? You feel Him drawing you closer with a curious mind and needy heart. That was me. I had all this guilt built up from past and the truth was that there was only one way to get rid of it – salvation; it is the only cure for guilt.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV

 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1 NIV

The greatest gift I ever received was the gift of Christ. He took a mean girl and turned her into a redeemed girl.  Praise His name!  As for my hair – too bad it doesn’t have Jesus, too.

Before you leave…

Because the November give-away was so successful, I decided that I would do another 5-book give-away of Organizing Your Prayer Closet in December, but with a little twist; I am going to up the ante this time.  This drawing will be for my blog subscribers.  If you are not a subscriber, you can become one here.This will be another 5-book give-away, plus one more special give-away for the subscriber who most creatively promotes Organizing Your Prayer Closet.  Just email me with details of all the different ways you promoted my book, and my ministry board and I will name a winner on December 20th.

Whomever does the most and is the most creative will win this really cool ASK cross necklace (valued at $38) with a copy of my book!

Here are some idea starters:

• Tweet your love using #OrganizingYourPrayerClosetBook
• Post a picture of yourself with Organizing Your Prayer Closet Book on Instagram
• Tell me how many books you purchased as gifts
• Start your own small group of structured prayer journalers using my small group guide
• Mention Organizing Your Prayer Closet in your Facebook posts.
• Write an online book review of my book for Amazon or Barnes & Noble, etc.
• Write a blog post about it.
• ETC!!!

Thank you, friends!

~gina

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Award-winning author Gina Duke is a wife, mom and the Director of Women’s Ministry at her local church. With a B.S. in Organizational Leadership, she is able to bring a clear word for authentic Christian living. Through her book, “Organizing Your Prayer Closet: A New and Life-Changing Way to Pray” (Abingdon Press), she imparts 1 Peter 4:7 with the gift of structured prayer journaling. If you would like to schedule Gina to speak on prayer or host a prayer journaling workshop, click here for more information. You may also follow her on Twitter and Instagram @TheGinaDuke.

Check out my video for Organizing Your Prayer Closet!

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