On Painted Nails

The day before Thanksgiving, I decided to stop all the preparations and paint the girls' nails. Years ago I had the impression that little girls should only wear light pink nail polish. Then I had a friend sweetly challenge that thought with, "If pink is okay, what's the matter with red? If we can wear red why not little girls? If red is okay for us, why not let them wear blue?" That discussion helped me to rethink how culture can change and sometimes it's okay to change with it. I drew the line at black nail polish though. Then, as culture changes and I do too, some of my girls even began wearing black nail polish. (I am adamant that they work hard to look like GIRLS.) For Thanksgiving, with all of our choices of colors, Rachel chose dark purple for her toes, Hannah chose completely black, Sarah and Mary chose to alternate lime green and purple on each of their toes and fingers, and Lydia chose light pink! with tiny orange flowers. It was fun, they all looked like girls and enjoyed their femininity and I got to spend a little time with my girls. I personally would rather they still run around and play in light pink nails and long prairie dresses. But as long as their preferences don't violate Scripture, I can't argue a whole lot.
A side note that happened as a result of that... Lydia stopped sucking her finger. I had made her stop sucking her finger in public a long time ago, but didn't really have the heart to put a complete end to it yet. A few days later when I noticed she wasn't putting her finger in her mouth, she said, "Well if I suck my finger then my beautiful nail polish will go away." Though it is a little sad that she is growing up, it's time to put away some of those childish things.