I lived for years making life choices, big and small, based primarily on what other people would think of me rather than what I wanted to do. I decided that I’d pull a 180 and do something different in several areas . . . Here’s one of my favorites.
My 10-year-old daughter has wanted to be a red-head for as long as I can remember. She started asking before she was 5 years old. She continued to ask a couple of times each year. Last year she came to me a few weeks before her birthday and said, ‘I know I can’t ask for anything that would take up too much space in the RV, so I was hoping for my 10th birthday you and Daddy would let me have red hair.’ So I told her I would talk it over with her Dad. She reminds me again a few weeks before her birthday. It’s really important to her.
A few days later while in the waiting room at my doctors I picked up a magazine and started reading this interview with Christina Hendricks (that gorgeous gal on Mad Men known for her beautiful red locks.)
When asked about her hair she said it was not her natural color and went into a story about reading “Anne of Green Gables” and wanting to be a red-head since she was 10 years old. Becoming a red-head changed her: she was happy. I couldn’t believe I had just read that story because that was exactly what I needed to hear. I knew we were suppose to let our daughter do this and I am happy to say she has blossomed as a red-head, and come out of her shell so much. She is just happier in all her red-headed glory. I cared more for her than what other people thought of me letter her get her hair colored.
Actually, she came to us and said, “For my birthday, can I get my hair colored and start saying ‘flipping’?” She reminded us that when she had used the expletive ‘flipping’ a year earlier, we told her that she couldn’t use that word because it sounded like THE word. She wanted us to reconsider it, because when she said, “flipping’, she thought of people doing flips, and it made her happy. I actually thought it wasn’t a huge deal, but again I was worried about what other people would think of ME for letting her use a word that sounded like THAT word.
I’m happy to report that clarity of purpose came just in time. We had the courage to prioritize our daughter ahead of what we thought other people might think of us. And our Red Headed daughter had a FLIPPING awesome 10th birthday.
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Exposing the Lies of our Demons, Devils & Flying Ghost Monkeys 