A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my afternoon painting nails for students. I ended the post talking about some of these students consequent acts of misbehavior . .. . . And our reaction. I called the post Life in Color.

Well yesterday, as a result of our nail polish afternoon, life got more colorful. In our weekly staff meeting, some members soundly denounced my action as encouraging student indiscipline and contributing to promiscuity. As I learned more deeply than I had realized before: to some men and women here, any form of physical adornment is inappropriate in a school setting, where students are supposed to focus on studying. And to others, nail painting itself is somehow connected to sexual enticement.

I share this information as a snapshot of my life here; a life of taking risks that end in mistakes, of refusing to take risks that end in doors closing, of very, very occasionally, getting it “right.”

And that’s why I choose to see this mistake too, as “right.” This mistake provided me with an opportunity to love girls. It provided me with an opportunity to reach out to a particularly troubled student in a new way. It gave me the opportunity to disappoint some staff, and be confronted by them. It gave me a chance to bow to their request not to do it again, and thus learn humility in their presence. It gave me an opportunity to respect some cultural issues which I believe can be harmful or damaging but are not mine to choose to change. It also gives me the chance to see how shocking I am; to see that my painted toe nails, my shiny lip gloss, and my choice of earrings can make or break someone’s opinion of me.

I have ideals about how girls should be raised, how women should be educated, and what it looks like to embrace men and women as complete people, not divorced from their sexuality but completed through it and many other characteristics of their selves. I have ideas about why trousers are a positive choice. Why nail polish can enhance self-esteem while meeting many women’s desire for beauty. But my opinion is far less important than meeting others in relationship with the love, communication and respect that will allow them to make choices not out of fear but out of knowledge. I want to truly impact the future for good, not just influence the small choices of today. So girls will be color-free for a bit, as we encourage them to remove their earrings, and stay make up free. Meanwhile I will continue to wear modest trousers in some public situations, to light up my life with colorful toe nails and put on that fruity lip gloss once in a while. And in conjunction, I pray that people will see that I am somehow still (with all my “modern” ways) a faithful wife, a loving mother, and a guider to Truth. And in time, perhaps, girls will learn what it looks like to honor God with beauty and adornment . . . . Even if I can’t be the one to adorn them.