WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH BABY'S CURLS?
By David Paulson, M.D.
I AM almost tempted to cut my little girl's hair close to her head, so everybody shall not be stimulating her pride and vanity by telling her how pretty she looks. The mother went on to explain that she actually saw her little girl standing before the glass admiring her golden curls. Possibly the course she suggested would be the wisest one for this mother to pursue, inasmuch as she had so long neglected to instil into the child's mind a great truth, which would have effectually barred such vanity from securing a foothold. The Lord made the baby's curls and the beautiful face and graceful form, and He made them for the purpose of representing in human flesh some of the remnants of divine beauty that it is still the privilege of sinful humanity to possess. The child should have had it thoroughly fixed in her mind that she must not allow her face to become soiled; for it would not then be as perfect a reflection of divine beauty as it might be; in short, she should have been taught that God wishes to illustrate through the beautiful curls and bright blue eyes a little of His own divine beauty. She soon begins to grasp the idea that she is to be here on earth a walking advertisement for God. When such a child is complimented because of her handsome appearance, instead of feeling flattered she feels thankful that she can represent a fragment of the glory of God in her own person to a world which, at best, sees only a little of divine things. Some may reason that the child can not comprehend such a truth; but common experience teaches that it has no difficulty in learning at an early age the devil's substitute for this truth, which is a desire to display self at every opportunity. Pride, fulness of bread, abundance of idleness, and failure to help others, produce Sodom every time (Eze. 16:49), and pride heads the list. When your little boy and girl come home from school and tell you that the teacher said they were the brightest children there, do you, by a nod and a smile of approval, further stimulate the personal pride that the teacher has already planted in their young souls, or do you read to them from 1 Cor. 12:7 that God has put some gift of His Spirit into every child, so that he may give to others a sample of what God is? And then do you kneel with these children, and together thank God that He has intrusted to them the gift of knowledge? When this is done, the child will have his soul fired with an ambition to study harder than ever before, so that he may have the privilege of representing a little more of that gift of knowledge to his classmates; and instead of despising them because he can excel them all, he will feel sorry for them, and a desire will be awakened in his breast to assist them in some way, so that they also will be able to represent more of God to others. When new clothes have been procured for your children, do you suggest the thought to their minds that they are better dressed than any other children in town? or do you carefully and thoughtfully impress upon them the sad story of how clothes came to be a necessity? And then do you show them how that particular garment, by its comfortable arrangement and durability, admirably meets the necessity? A beautiful piece of statuary might have some rags bound about it in such a way as absolutely to detract from its beauty, or it might be arrayed in such gaudy material as positively to obscure the sculptor's skill, while the true idea is to drape it so harmoniously that the true object of the sculptor's art shall be attained. It may take an adult's mind years to grasp this idea with reference to the clothing of the human body; for we have so long thought in wrong ways on these subjects that our ideas have become warped and deformed; but the average child can comprehend in a few minutes what it means to dress to the glory of God. Those children who have had their minds fortified with truth will not so readily be contaminated with error. For "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. The best way to crowd out error is to let truth come in. If you do not feel that you can take the time to teach your children the grand truth that they are in the world just to represent as far as possible an indwelling Saviour, even in their physical appearance, then you might better trim off the curls, and also allow the beautiful face in some way to become disfigured (for the principle is the same in both cases), and even allow the graceful body to become deformed, and thus let them go into the kingdom of God halt, maimed, and blind, rather than be lost because Satan took advantage of your neglect. But suppose you did remove all these temptations, what assurance have you then that they will be saved? They may be actually proud of their humility, and this is one of the most incurable forms of pride. To illustrate the importance of laying hold of this truth, I will cite a case that came to my attention recently in Chicago. One of our medical mission workers picked up a waif out of the very mire of Sodom. She was literally clothed in filth and rags. When she had been thoroughly cleansed and properly dressed, the idea was suggested to her mind that she had a "real pretty dress," and she immediately11strutted out into the hall and found another girl, and assured her that she had the prettier dress of the two. This child had been dragged out of physical Sodom only to have spiritual Sodom implanted in her mind.