Manicure, Please!

I'm a nail-biter.

I don't know when this terrible habit started, I just know I have battled it for years and as little sense as it makes, I am still tempted to tear off my nails with my teeth! It doesn't seem to matter that I know I will eventually chew them down to the quick and that even if they don't bleed they will certainly be painful for several days until they grow out again. Any hang-nail, rough edge or sharp corner is enough to lure me to pop it in my mouth to get rid of it. I know I can't smooth my nails this way. I know I need a nail file, not my teeth. Nevertheless, I find myself sticking my fingers in my mouth and worrying my nail until, sure enough, I bite it and rip it off.

Psychologists would have a field day with the whys and wherefores of such action (especially when I add the fact that I was originally a thumb-sucker and it lasted into my middle school years!) but frankly, I don't know why I keep wanting to bite my nails - I just do! A handy nail file is the only thing that saves my fingers from becoming bloody stumps. (That and the fact that my husband finds it a 'disgusting' habit!) Believe me, I'm much better now than what I was.

My mother had beautiful nails (which both of my sisters inherited by the way - how fair is that?). They were strong, perfectly shaped, and always polished. She wore a 'French manicure' - but not like what is popular today. I'm not sure if it was a 1940's fashion thing or something that was actually European - but she didn't paint the half-moons (the white area at the base of the nail) on her nails. I know it sounds strange. I haven't seen it on anyone else in my lifetime, but that's how her hands looked everyday. Once a week she gave herself a manicure using a particular Revlon red. Perfectly painted - very elegant, never chipped (2 coats of nail polish and one of a topcoat hardener to protect them). Me? I don't even have those half-moons. Oh, yeah, they're there - about a quarter of an inch under my skin. My mother always insisted I could make my nails longer by pushing my cuticles back, but somehow that never worked very well. So, just stubby, short, too-soft and crooked nails for me.

Even when I do manage to let them grow, they don't even grow out straight! So you'll understand why I 'bit the bullet' and went to have acrylic nails put on for my daughter's wedding. It was oh, so wonderful having elegant nails that didn't chip or tear. (I still put them in my mouth - fortunately they were too tough for me to bite!) The rough part came when I wanted to take them off. Ouch.

So what in the world do chewed up or fake fingernails have to do with my spiritual life? Nothing, really - but you know I'm going to make an application anyway! I'm thinking of Paul who said, "I want to do the things that are good, but I do not do them. I do not do the good things I want to do, but I do the bad things I do not want to do. So if I do things I do not want to do, then I am not the one doing them. It is sin living in me that does those things." (Romans 7:19-20)

When we struggle to do the right thing we are fighting against our old nature. And without the power of Christ in our lives we are sure to lose the battle. Paul goes on to proclaim in verse 24: "What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

There's hope for all of us! Even nail-biters.

All for Him,

Missy