You’re Trying Too Hard…
After exiting our bathroom from his shower, my husband commented, “I feel sorry for you women.”
I wasn’t sure what prompted such a strange comment, and so I asked him what he meant.
“You have all these products that you use,” he offered, pointing to the various items that lined the shelves in our bathroom shower, “and I only have one,” he finished saying.
He had a point. The one loan bottle that belonged to him was a shampoo, body wash combination for men. It’s one of those products that my husband should have invented. After all, years before that ingenious creation came out, he was using the suds from his shampoo as a body wash. Forget that I painstakingly had sniffed countless men’s body washes in our local Walmart, before narrowing it down to the best smelling one for him; my husband just wanted things simple. The brilliancy of someone combining body wash and shampoo for men was not lost on me. My husband on the other hand could have cared less, he’d already invented it years ago in our shower.
“One, two, three, four, five,” my husband started counting the items that belonged to me, making his point as to why he felt sorry for me as a woman.
I hadn’t thought about all the items that I used, in comparison to what my husband used, until he started counting them off to me.
There on the shelves of our shower, was my regular shampoo, clarifying shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, intense conditioning treatment, not to mention a few other items that I used. Those items didn’t even include the ones that I may or may not use once exiting the shower. Leave in conditioners, hairspray, mousse, styling gel, body lotion, face lotion, and the list continue on…
Wow, he was right, we women do use a lot of products. My husband on the other hand doesn’t look for reasons to use something that he doesn’t have to; he simply uses what he needs when he needs it. Like the men’s face lotion that I bought him, which he only uses (I might add) during winter months when his dry skin requires it, and that’s not even a given. That small bottle has lasted him several years.
As for me, I have a stock of Bath and Body Works (BBW) lotions stored in my closet. As soon as my favorite seasonal scent comes out, I find myself stocking up on bottles like a squirrel does nuts for the winter. Anyone who shops at BBW, knows exactly why that’s necessary. After all, BBW keeps changing their lotions, and so there is a relatively good chance that our favorite scent will not be available next season, and I shudder to think what we’d do without our favorite scent.
I wish I had my husband’s ability to make things simpler, instead of complicating my life with things that I really don’t need. Do I really need eight bottles of my seasonal Bath and Body Works lotion, just in case they do or don’t discontinue it? No, I don’t. Besides, I honestly think that they count on us as women to become dependent on our self-imposed need for their products. My husband, on the other hand, doesn’t stand in front of a store shelf trying to decipher which product he wants. If there are a variation of men’s body washes available to him, he’ll most likely grab the least expensive brand, and throw it in our cart without a second thought. I on the other hand will pick up countless bottles, reading their descriptions (that is if I haven’t already done prior research on my cell phone) before deciding which product I want.
A lot of effort, for quite honestly, no reason. No matter how many products I use on my hair, it still looks the same; as is the case with my body lotion. All those products promising their miracle anti-aging ingredients or silky soft hair, are about as legit as the Easter Bunny. Let’s face it, men look distinguished as they age, and that’s with little effort on their part. Maybe they are onto something.
As Christians we sometimes fall into that same trap; we convince ourselves that the more we do for God, the closer we will get to His good side. Basically, we’re lining our shower shelves with countless products, thinking that we need them, when in reality we’re wasting our effort on an endless supply of products, and we still end up with unsatisfying results.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
No matter how much effort we put into doing what we think is pleasing to God, it will never earn us a place in heaven. We can tithe more than anyone else, we can be the first to always volunteer, or sit on every board or committee in church, but we still won’t have the upper hand with God, over anyone else.
God isn’t a company trying to lure us into buying His products, He’s offering them to us for nothing, so the next time you find yourself tempted to try one more overpriced product, remember, that the best thing you could possibly ever own, has been offered to you for free; your salvation and eternal life. Beat that Bath and Body Works…