The Glory of a Woman

In September of 2010, we were in the small town of Mountain View, Arkansas. We were traveling with a minister friend of ours, Jamie Coulter. While we were there, I decided I needed a trim. My hair had not had a professional touch it since 2004, but I had clipped it myself a lot over the years.

There was a hair salon within walking distance from where we were staying called Linda’s Curl Up & Dye. (Yes, seriously! See pic above.) I sat down and flipped through the style magazine, found something that I liked, and waited for her to finish with her scheduled client.

When it was my turn in the chair, she complimented me on my choice of style, cut a lot off the back of my head, and charged me $20 for about 10 minutes of work.

She talked while she cut, remarking that I shouldn’t be wearing my hair the way I had been because I looked like a Baptist preachers’ wife. I almost burst out laughing. I was (am) a minister’s wife, but I had not told her anything about myself. So, that was my experience in Arkansas.

When we returned to South Carolina, and found ourselves out ‘on the street’, we were taken in by a church member whose close relative had her own salon. Tina Dixon was a terrific singer. She could raise the roof with ‘How Great Thou Art’. Yet, two people that she saw twice a week for over two months that really needed some grooming, she totally ignored. But, she did manage to show off her new purse, shoes and clothes every week.

Her purse was a very pretty purple. I didn’t begrudge her the purse, nor anything else she talked about ‘getting on sale’. But, what I saw was that most of the women of the church had an underlying competition going on as to who got the most new things for the least money each week. There was no Jesus in that. God had presented her with someone hungry, naked and sick, as is talked about in Matthew 25. We also need a haircut, but no help in that area was provided, either.

In the spring of 2011, when we came into Haywood County, in North Carolina, we were a part of a church in which one of the members, Katrinka Webb, owned her own salon. (Which she uses for the glory of God!) We had been there about a month when my birthday came along. She wrote me out a $25 gift certificate from her shop, Shear Glory, and gave it to my husband for him to give to be as a birthday gift.

In the meantime, she gave me a free haircut, the same style as I had had in Arkansas, but finished it to perfection. She was not concerned about time or money; she simply wanted friendship and fellowship.

We left the area before I had a chance to redeem the certificate, but I’ve carried it with me for two years now. Two weeks ago, while passing through Haywood County, I met a homeless man that had just come from Tyler, Texas, because the Lord had told him to go to there. He is an ordained minister, and is ministering to the homeless at the food kitchen called The Open Door.

He was in bad need of a haircut, so I gave him the certificate, then sent Katrinka a message on Facebook telling her what I had done. She said she would honor it. Her shop is less than a mile from The Open Door.

I have told of these three experiences, all dealing with the glory of a woman to point out that, sometimes God puts needy people directly in our path. What we do with that opportunity is going to dictate whether we receive a blessing or a curse. Me? I want a blessing. And, to receive a blessing, a person must BE a blessing.