With These Hands......

Can I just say that I really hate going to the nail salon. Its just such an inconvenience to me. I really don’t know what the real reason for me not liking to go other than…….I don’t like to go.

So yesterday I forced myself to go and get my nails done cause I needed a fill-in some kinda bad. I’m not one of those acrylic nail girls with the bright colors and designs. Nope. I do a basic sheer neutral, with short-length square shape and rounded on the corners. To the average looker it would seem that I have long nails, but in actuality I have long fingers.

So I sat down with my regular nail technician and he did the usual before getting started….complimented me on my hands. He told me, “Jill you are still champion!!” “You have most beautiful hands out of all customers!!” “Just beautiful”. I smiled. In my head I was like yeah, yeah they probably tell all of their customers this. Then I thought, he probably just remember how well I tip so he’ll tell me anything to get my $25.

After he’d finished, and after I got a pedicure, I went to the back to sit under the nail dryer. A few minutes later a middle-aged Black woman sits across from me. She smiled but didn’t say anything. It was clear that we were both just trying to get dried so we could go on about our real duties. But just as we were both squirming in our seats, the nail technician came to the back and told the lady……. “This is Jill.” “This is the lady I always talk about hands.” I looked up like….huh. Then the lady perks up and says….. “Oh…so you’re Jill!!!” When the technician left the lady told me that all the technicians talk about my hands all the time. I was like “Shut-up!!” I couldn’t believe it. Cause to be honest I didn’t even know they knew my name. And out of all their many customers they remember my name and my hands. Wow. Here I thought dude was just trying to patronize me.

Over the years, I’ve heard it more than enough times that I should be a hand model. I have a girlfriend that tells me I’m missing my calling and that I should contact a modeling agency before I get any older. It goes in one ear and out the other. Granted, I’m not blind. I do realize that I have beautiful hands, but to be honest…..I’m not that vain. I mean, the Lord has blessed me with several standout features but I’m quite sure that what He blessed me with is for specific purposes to glorify Him and not for public display.

That reminds me of one time at my old church the congregation was standing and lifting our hands in corporate prayer and this lady sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked what color nail polish I had on. YES WHILE WE WERE PRAYING!!! I couldn’t believe it. It is for that very reason that I stopped wearing colored nail polish to church. And we ain’t even gonna talk about on the toes. If I must wear open toe shoes to church…..in which I try my absolute best not to….I most definitely am going with a neutral on the toes. I NEVER wear red polish on my toes anyway (a childhood issue that I won’t bring up in this entry), but I love the way orange shades look on my feet.

My family was brought up in a church where no open toe shoes were allowed and we had to wear stockings. If it was the summer and the temperature was hitting 100 degrees…then we wore knee-hi’s. But we had to cover our legs and we had to cover our feet. Though very old school traditions, those are traditions that I still hold firm to today. Me and my girlfriend had a conversation the other day because she asked if I wore sandals to work and I said….absolutely not. Nothing against anybody else, other than I can’t stand to see women wearing flip flops to the office, but for me…..I just don’t feel comfortable doing it. I mean, I gotta admit…..I don’t do the stockings thing. I even made it clear that I will be a bride that will not be wearing stockings on my wedding day and yes…..I do plan on getting married in the church. But its just something about stockings that do not agree with my legs. As soon as I put them on I get a run. So its best that me and stockings stay at a decent distance from on another--lol.

But I try my best to wear my feet covered--that is not wearing open toe shoes in certain places. Don't get me wrong...I'm a sandal wearer and LOVE to wear my feet out. But it’s just been over the last two years or so that I have worn open toe shoes to church. And its more that I feel a little comfortable wearing them because I see my first lady wearing them. But I keep it more reserved and not......bam, look at my feet!!! I’m understanding more and more that hands and feet can be very seductive and so I am very mindful of how I carry both.

Back to my hands. You know its just been in the last few months or so that I realize that my ministry is in my hands. Blogging does no justice at how I use my hands. Ok, I take that back cause obviously my little journaling is doing something cause the email replies that I’m getting are amazing. Just to think……I’m only talking about my little daily living. But other than blogging, I can write a mean proposal, design beautiful programs and booklets, and those who are fortunate enough to get my personal letters know that I can pull a tear or two out a reader. But I’m accepting that the Lord has put a powerful gift in my hands. And so I am being very conscious of how I use my hands.

You know what’s funny? Every now and again when the devil is mad at me cause he sees something good coming down the pike for me I find myself hurting my hands. It could be the most haphazard situation. For instance, I have a sore on the top of my hand that happened about a month ago. I was coming out of the elevator and tried to prevent the doors from closing cause someone was trying to catch it and my right hand got scratched. I had no idea that two weeks after I got the scratch my pastor would ask me to put together a proposal for him.

My eyes are opened now. Really opened. Cause I think of all the lustful things I’ve done with my hands---just being honest here---and how the devil just tried to destroy the tool in which the Lord put power in. Even going as far as to convince me that my hands should be displayed on a picture having no real use. My pastor was right. At the beginning of the year he told me that this year things will begin to be so much clearer for me. And I’m seeing clearer more and more every day.

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. --1 Thessalonians 4:10-12

From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him. --Proverbs 12:14