We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
With a busy day planned, it surprised me to feel a prompt to book in an eyelash tint. It was illogical. I had no time in my day, an appointment to fit would be highly unlikely, and I have an eyelash tint maybe once a year if I’m lucky (prior to Christmas so I don’t have to worry too much about makeup, etc). For the rest of the year, I don’t worry, so it surprised me when God nudged me to make an appointment.
I briefly caught up with a beautiful Christian friend in the morning. She had been a beautician in the past. I mentioned the God prompting, and she encouraged me to make an appointment. She then told me some hilarious stories about eyebrows, tinting and waxing that left us both laughing out loud…
With hurried goodbyes, I went to the supermarket, hoping for a quick run through. Items in trolley, I looked up to see a check out completely clear of people- a miracle for the time of morning.
I headed over, said ‘hello’ and started loading up the conveyor belt. Making small talk, I felt the familiar nudge to pray for the girl. She was young, so I asked her how she found working at the supermarket.
She responded by saying she wanted to study. She explained she was a qualified beautician, and she wanted to further her study at an elite beauty school. I recognised the name of the school, having spoken to other beauticians over the years about their dreams and goals. I acknowledged I had heard of the place and said it was quite a prestigious place. She agreed. With that, I offered to pray for her and her dream.
I briefly introduced myself, and she happily gave me her hand. I prayed for her future, for her to have favour regarding her studies, for dreams fulfilled. As I prayed, I felt she was also currently looking for work as a beautician. Now, this might seem obvious, given she was a qualified beautician working at a supermarket checkout, but it wasn’t immediately obvious to me. Many young people work part time to support their studies.
With another nudge, I asked her if she was currently looking for a job in the beauty industry. She was, so I prayed for favour with her search, for that the perfect job and as I left the store, I encouraged her that the job would come quickly, much more quickly than she thought.
Finally home, I remembered I was to make a booking at a particular local waxing place for an eyelash tint. I tried to logic it away. There was simply no way I could get an appointment with the right girl in the next two hours (which was the time frame I had before I collected a child from school). So, with such a small window of time that I had available, and given my schedule, I knew that there would be no chance of an appointment.
Are you getting the gist? I was using logic to step out of obedience. Our family calls it ‘logicing’ ourselves out of ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ might be.
Using my logic to excuse not trying, and honestly, I couldn’t bother going, I felt a sudden strong conviction. With that, I picked up the phone and called. Ironically, the girl I needed answered the phone. Within 2 minutes, I had the perfect appointment! Go figure! Go God!!
At the appointment, I made the usual small talk. The young woman and I chatted, and she shared how she loved eyelash extensions. She then shared that, as a child, she had compulsively pulled her eyelashes out, so although she loved extensions, but she couldn’t wear them because, when she got them, she would pull at them until all her eyelashes came out. Her natural eyelashes came out with even greater ease because of the extensions, so in love, the person who usually put her extensions in refused to give her extensions at all, otherwise she would lose all her lashes.
I knew of this condition. Years before, I had researched the condition when one of my children, when young, had twisted their hair and pulled it out night after night. I had found wads of hair in their bed. I thought it might have been a stress response to what was happening at school. The condition is ‘alopecia.’
I have written about alopecia in other stories. For these, see links here and here.
I spoke with my child and let them know it could develop into a habit that could ultimately cause bald patches. The behaviour instantly stopped – undesired consequence understood. In comparison, this girl, now an adult, could not stop. She felt compelled (as she had as a child) to pull her eyelashes out.
I mentioned my child’s story. It surprised her I knew about the condition.
Appointment over, we made our way to the register. Chatting some more, I gently asked for her hand. As she gave it to me, I explained I was a Christian, and I was going to pray for her to be healed.
She smiled, saying ‘sure.’
She clearly thought it was a ‘nice’ thing for me to do. Most non-Christians have no problem with us praying for them. Most think it’s a kind offer; however, she expected nothing to come of it. This was fine by me. I couldn’t heal her if I tried, but my God could!
I smiled back and asked the Holy Spirit to come. Praying I broke the addiction and requested healing, finishing in Jesus’ name. As I prayed, I felt a rush of the Holy Spirit through me. I assume it went straight into her because as I prayed she looked a quite startled.
Jumping backwards in her chair, she said:
‘Oh my gosh, oh, I just felt tingly all over! Oh my gosh, that was so weird! I am so tingly!’
I smiled again and said that the tingly feeling was the Holy Spirit. I then explained it was definitely not me, but God, and that she could ask for more throughout the day and He would come to her again and again.
She looked at me with enormous eyes and said, ‘oh my gosh… oh… thank you so much… oh wow!’
It was only later that day that I realised the coincidence, and coincidence is the language of the Spirit.
Three appointments; three beauticians.
God has a sense of humour and He could not have set me up any more thoroughly to show me I was on His timeframe, in the centre of His will, regardless of what I felt.
It was a trio of beauticians encountering the Trio of Love:
Father,
Son and
Holy Spirit
Heaven’s community, reaching and loving my community through me. The ease was tangible, the joy palpable, and the love undeniable. I knew then, as I know now, that God is always on the move. The Trinity Beautiful always wants to reach out to love on people wherever we go!
We are the conduit; He is the loving power.
God adores seeing people step into their destinies; Jesus is ever present to encourage and love; and, Holy Spirit is always ready to show them, through experience, that all three are real.
The Trio of Love reconciled to us through Jesus Christ purely and simply because…
God is Good!
©Beth Kennedy 2021
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God Is Good, you were used as a conduit of God’s love today. Showing the true beauty that God gives. The 3 women with beautician training got to know God truly loves and cares for them and that their lives are important. What love!
Thank you. It was weird. The first is a Christian friend. I was just as blessed by her!!! And of course the other two were a blessing in that being a conduit means some sticks 😊thank you yet again for loyally and consistently reading and commenting! Your comments have been of great encouragement. Blessings.
Love to read your posts and see how God uses you. God has a great sense of humor and uses it to make you stop and smile! The complete mystery may never be solved until you get home to heaven. You are most welcome! 🙂
What a great post! Isn’t it amazing how God works if we just simply override our “realistic” thoughts and just DO what God is asking no matter how it doesn’t make sense?
Thanks for sharing! I found this very encouraging.
Hi Staci. Thank you for your encouragement! Time and again He comes through 🙉 blessings!
Very cool! Praise God and glad you obeyed His promptings 🙂 continue and be a light!
Thank you for your encouragement. Many blessings. God is Good!
HAHA! What great timing on this post. God’s been nudging me to go and give a Christian tract , accompanied by a gift, to my neighbor and I’ve been too scared to do it. I’m not good at gently approaching things. Your post reminds me to “just do it” and let God do the rest. And funny that I had to re-read my own words from 2016 above in my other reply. Thanks again, Beth! Thanks again, God! Lol! : )
that is so funny, and so God! Did the rewritten post include your old comments? I’ve never used the repost (and rewrite) button. God is having me rewrite many of my posts as I work out what I include in a book. I usually rework them, but I saw the repost button and thought I would give it a god LOL. If you have any favourites, please let me know … 🙂
HI Beth! I think so, unless you’ve got another Staci on your replies too, it did repost my older comment from 2016. AND btw God worked out the thing with my neighbor today! Peeked out the window and saw noone was home and thought oh well I’ll do it tomorrow. Then the Holy Spirit was nudging me like 15 minutes later to look again and my neighbor had come home! So I went over, prayed before doing so, and the neighbor was so nice and took the gift and asked me to sit on the porch for some neighborly catch up! Learned about some serious health issues they were having that I will be praying about. So God TOTALLY WORKED IT OUT! YAY! But now I’m on the other side and now afraid of how they will receive me next time I see them due to the Christian tract I included. Please pray for me that I will get more opportunities to witness, guided by the Holy Spirit, and that God would rid me of the unhealthy spirit of fear. I’m so tired of wanting to serve God and then hit almost daily with fear. – And again, Beth, your blog is very much an encouragement and it’s always a blessing to read. It lets me know what’s going on out there with other believers, how God moves and works in creative ways! AND it shuts the enemy up when I hear the negative chatter from that camp I remember your posts and it’s combatting the lies with the TRUTH of God via what you share here. THANK YOU Beth and God.
Oh how beautiful I love that ♥️ I know that fear about what they may think of me after and next time. Keep being you, keep your love on and God will cover the rest. Have you thought about it coming to one of our usa trainings in the prophetic? Wednesday night is on hearing ♥️ or soaking?
Hi Beth! I have wanted to do the meetings but the time difference is the issue if I remember correctly? I think it’s 5AM here when you’ guys are active. That and I don’t like/trust zoom. But I’ll pray about it.
8PM CDT USA ♥️
But all good – big hugs 🤗