I don’t support nail extensions; a family member does. She has everything a professional nail tech uses and she can also draw her own designs. She’s self-taught.
She did the whole shebang earlier this week for February 14, and was eager to show and tell.
They really were stunning. “Beautiful! Wow! Will you remove them soon…?”
“No!” Her guard rails started snapping into place! “I like nails!”
“But they are difficult for you to do daily tasks! You’re using chemicals and they’re seeping into your blood stream…little by little. You are buffing your nails too often and that’s eventually going to destroy the nail bed. You’re applying nails and chemicals in nail polish to your toes – that’s going to have an impact sooner or later!”
She wasn’t happy. No negativity was welcomed today. No! No! No! She pushed me out of her psychological space and kept her distance for about two hours!
I thought of secretly dumping her bottles of nail polish one by one.
The Holy Spirit would give me no release regarding this though, unlike the time when He didn’t bat a wink when I trashed two string garments she had bought. She said their acquisition was to see what the hype was all about. This occurred almost a year ago and I’m yet to be summoned to court concerning their disappearance!
But this time, Holy Spirit instructed I nail the “nail thing” to the Cross, so I did and left it there, praying that God would put a stop to this youthful nonsense!
DON’T NAG!
It’s 5:45 a.m. and lights are still on. Bed still untouched. It’s the fourth time in a row this week, but I thank God there’s always room at the foot of the Cross for more intercession.
I hear Holy Spirit’s caution: “Don’t nag, Max, don’t nag. Remember, she’s an adult. Just pray!”
The place is so silent that when the quiet wailing started, it was magnified: “I can’t find one of my nails! One of my nails is missing! Oh no! Has anyone seen it?”
My heart lurched a tiny bit. Traitor!
I resolved to stay put a little, so sure heart would settle and regain sensibility soon, but it didn’t. It started hoping the nail would emerge.
The back and forth began: “Did you look under your bed? Move everything on the floor?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
I felt a twinge of conscience, empathy, and decided to set aside my work to help. As I entered her room, it was just in time to see her scraping from her desk the “ninety and nine” to go dump them in the kitchen bin! I heard a voice that sounded like mine saying out loud, “No, no, don’t do that. Just wear a plain one on that nail. Don’t dump everything because you can’t find one thing!”
She released “the innocent ones” onto the table and I began to shift bottles here, bottles there, hunting. I was furiously communicating with Holy Spirt as I searched. “Why aren’t You letting me encourage her to dump the nails in the big bin where she was heading?! She has a small bin in her room – why aren’t I allowed to agree with her to travel to the dumpster? It’s what I wanted! It’s prayers answered! She would never find them again.”
But He would not start the victory song for me to dance. Instead, He had me genuinely searching for this nail!
In about a minute’s time, there was a joyful sound: “Oh, here it is! I’ve found it. Thank you so much for helping! It was under this bottle!”
Immediately, I realised what Holy Spirit had done for me. He showed me the “ninety and nine” quite vividly—widely scattered in the kitchen bin—and how I would’ve had to go wade amongst the week’s refuse to ferret them out, devise a plan to sanitise them, “Google, how do I…”
Holy Spirit said, “It’s not your turn yet. Tell her this: when troubles come, you don’t throw out the baby with the bath water! You keep a lid on your temper. And you pray.”
He paused. “I will deal with your situation, Max, another day.”
That day dawned just a few hours later.
She called me in a very cautious tone: “Uhhh…can you help me with my jewellery? I didn’t realise…” She was searching for a safe space. “I didn’t remember to put them on before I finished installing the nails.” She was avoiding the word “gluing”.
I gave her a mini lecture and was about to help when Holy Spirit intervened, “Nope! It’s negotiation time. She must give a deadline when she will remove everything before you lift a hand to help!”
It took her 15 minutes to privately deliberate and draft the terms of the agreement, and in less than a minute when she emerged, we signed off on amicable grounds.