Dealing with my own vanity

[NewsTheMan]

I think I’m pretty vain. And I want it to stop. It’s an obstacle to my spiritual progress - and especially to my vocation. Now, I know this may sound funny, but I take a lot of pride in - of all things - my hair. I spend 5-15 minutes a day doing my hair and if I don’t have time I wear a hat. It’s ridiculous, and I know it. I only do it because I like to “look good” and to be “attractive” (not in a lustful sense, mind you).

So I was considering - shave head? It wouldn’t be a permanent solution because vanity and pride are things of the soul, but it might go a long way for me. It would be a kind of self-mortification, since having no hair to style scares me and I don’t like the idea of it.

I just wanted to ask for opinions. I don’t mean that I want to be bald, just get a number 5 buzzcut or something (shaving head implies going bald but it’s shorthand for taking off all of the hair).

 

[Trishie]

Just don’t think about it. Make your hair look good, it’s a small issue really.
God gave you the gift of yourself and your attributes.
View looking reasonably attractive as a bonus in attracting others to consider your
Christian values. Flowers use colorful petals to draw in the bees.

The question is whether you give time to God, and are decent and kind to others and faithful to the Sacraments.

 

[NewsTheMan]

Just don’t think about it. Make your hair look good, it’s a small issue really.
The question is whether you give time to God, and are decent and kind to others and faithful to the Sacraments.

You’re not gonna like dis…

I did it anyway

 

[Trishie]

Hair re-grows! I offer your sacrifice to God in prayer for your essential humility and generosity, regardless of your hairstyle!
I have a delightful son who keeps his hair razor short, but his face is handsome anyway, and his lively kind and intelligent eyes are as engaging as ever.
He automatically makes others feel warmth and that they matter, and that is far more appealing than his formerly-charmingly tamed dark waves of hair.

It’s the focus that matters, and five to 15 minutes is a small part of 24 hours.
Truly, its the faith and love in your heart and witness that is what counts.
So focussing about focussing on your hair is a small thing.
Still I’m sure the Lord is pleased by your statement of sincere humility in razoring your head.

 

[NewsTheMan]

Hair re-grows!. I offer your sacrifice to God in prayer for your essential humility and generosity, regardless of your hairstyle!

Thank you I went ahead and did it because I truly felt like it was an obstacle. I mean, 15 minutes a day on my hair as a man, and all in all per day I pray for only 60 minutes? That to me started to seem wacky :hypno: It’s nothing huge, and I must keep in mind that Satan likes to make us believe in doing little we’re doing a lot. As CS Lewis points out, Satan lets go of the little victories if he can foresee a bigger one coming. So I didn’t do this lightly. I’m not making a mountain of of a molehill either If I have learned anything, it’s that small things please God, and that small things accumulated can lead us to Hell.

Praise be to God!

 

[Trishie]

You can pray all day if you offer each moment of your day to God in the morning!.

I pray, “Lord Jesus may every beat of my heart, every cell of my body, every moment, every breath, every heartbeat, every footstep, every thought, word, and deed, of my day and of my life, be 'amen” to all Your intentions and desires, unworthy though I am, for nothing is impossible to You."

Maybe you can work out something like that so that even in your busy day, God is continually creating and accepting prayer in you!

Yes, I agree, and those are small things…each little heartbeat, yet sacred because created and sustained by God. Why not celebrate such little things in making prayer of them, as heartbeat and breath, commonplace, taken for granted, yet wonderful gifts of God to sustain our bodies that are temple of the eternal soul God has given you and me!

 

[Trishie]

Has it occurred to you that you might come to like your spartan head!
What will you do then!

**In any case, I love the sincerity and willingness to sacrifice in order to demonstrate your love and honor of God.

And I don’t take that lightly. I realize it was a powerful movement of your heart and inclination towards God.**

God bless you my dear brother in Christ.

 

[Trishie]

I checked your profile and saw you are discerning the Priesthood.
It has been for many years a call I seemed to have, to pray for those called to be priests, for those who are priests.
It was for that reason, knowing, ‘how better than I pray for Your Priests than through the Holy Eucharist’, that led me to become a daily Mass Catholic, from Ash Wednesday 1980

So I’ll keep you in my prayers, now that your hair has brought you to my attention. I’ve seen you around previously but we’ve never engaged in dialogue before.
God can bring good even out of a sacrificial hair-trim!

 

[NewsTheMan]

I checked your profile and saw you are discerning the Priesthood.
It has been for many years a call I seemed to have, to pray for those called to be priests, for those who are priests.
It was for that reason, knowing, ‘how better than I pray for Your Priests than through the Holy Eucharist’, that led me to become a daily Mass Catholic, from Ash Wednesday 1980

So I’ll keep you in my prayers, now that your hair has brought you to my attention. I’ve seen you around previously but we’ve never engaged in dialogue before.
God can bring good even out of a sacrificial hair-trim!

Thank you very much! I am actually actively discerning the religious life (see the link in my signature for the community!) and once I have finished my studies this year I will be going off to the monastery and God willing be accepted into the Novitiate.

God bless

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

You are brave. I admire you for doing this and deciding to address the problem of vanity.

What an interesting choice of F.SS.R. So you’ll be coming to our shores then?

 

[Sirach2]

OP, that was a spirit-led decision, for sure! Thanks be to God for guiding you and allowing you to recognize your weakness. I had a similar vanity problem that I couldn’t let go of, since prayer alone was not accomplishing the goal. When I prayed about it, the answer came from scripture, “If your hand is an “occasion of sin” for you, cut it off, etc.” I knew the matter could only be resolved by severing the roots of the problem, and wonderfully, the temptation to this prideful vanity ceased.

 

[NewsTheMan]

You are brave. I admire you for doing this and deciding to address the problem of vanity.

What an interesting choice of F.SS.R. So you’ll be coming to our shores then?

Thank you! I wish I were braver, this was hardly a big act at all in the long run, and the true test of my courage will be coming very soon for me! But this was one small thing I needed to do to reflect less of myself and more of Christ.

God willing I will be going to your shores! Early January 2012 I will be heading off for a month’s retreat with the F.Ss.R.

OP, that was a spirit-led decision, for sure! Thanks be to God for guiding you and allowing you to recognize your weakness. I had a similar vanity problem that I couldn’t let go of, since prayer alone was not accomplishing the goal. When I prayed about it, the answer came from scripture, “If your hand is an “occasion of sin” for you, cut it off, etc.” I knew the matter could only be resolved by severing the roots of the problem, and wonderfully, the temptation to this prideful vanity ceased.

Thank you I praise God for this too. I hope that it won’t give me a false sense of courage, or that I am praiseworthy for doing a pitiful act like merely cutting my hair. But I know what you mean and can relate - sometimes we think prayer must solve it all without our action. Sometimes the answer is right there when we pray and read the scriptures. For a long time I was blind to it, but God opens hearts, minds, ears and eyes with His infinite love and grace.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

God willing I will be going to your shores! Early January 2012 I will be heading off for a month’s retreat with the F.Ss.R.

I’m sure you’ve been warned about the weather.

The monks came down to Edinburgh last year for a mass and it was really wonderful to see them. It seems that the community is very international.

I have never been to Papa Stronsay but I’ve heard it is beautiful.