Late this afternoon I found myself standing beside our local academy (high school) principal. I could not help but notice his extremely short haircut. His head was about 3/16th of an inch away from being shaved. My mind rushed back fifty years to my student days in such a school. It was a very conservative school that prided itself on upholding values. After a Christmas holiday one of our classmates returned to school with such a haircut. He was suspended for two weeks while his hair grew long enough for him to be morally acceptable to attend class. The very next decade they were suspending students because their hair was too long.
How can it be that we confuse genuine values with superficiality? Where are our heads? Can’t we see the difference between that which is harmful and that which really doesn’t matter? How many young people have left our churches never to return because some overly critical busybody majored in minors and offended them over something that really doesn’t harm anyone?
Can’t we love a child for his or her heart instead of what adolescent thing they want to do with their hair? Really now, what harm comes from a teen having purple hair? Does it look good? Probably not. But so what? We sing a song in church called “Just As I Am” and want that only to apply to ourselves. No, I am not talking about not having standards. Of course we need standards. What I am appealing to is a sense of only going after the things that harm. We can so alienate our children with non-harmful issues they stop listening to us and don’t hear us when we speak of the things that really are harmful like pride or dishonesty.
Written by Roger Bothwell on October 21, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org