Skin Care and Prayer

The below post was written by my friend Jess as I thought it would be nice for other fantastic women Priests or potential Priests to contribute their experiences  aswell!

Skin Care & Prayer

When Steph asked me to do this post, I was (and still am) honoured! My name is Jess and I am currently spending my days working at a church in Clapham called Holy Trinity, and in my spare time, I am praying about God’s calling on my life. I will soon be going to a BAP (Bishop’s Advisory Panel) which is a posh name for a 3 day interview where the panel ask you lots of questions to see if you’re right to become a vicar. So by April I should know if I can train to be a priest, which makes me about a year behind Steph at the moment!

So why did Steph ask me to do a post? Well, let’s just say I have a quirky prayer routine. Whilst thinking about when I pray, and when I could spare some more time to give to God, I started to think about where I spend my time. And I concluded that I spend about 30 minutes a day in front of a mirror, washing my face. Now that seems extreme, but that’s 15 minutes in the morning, and again in the evening. Within those 15 minutes I have a cleanse, tone and moisturise routine. Now, you might be thinking, ‘yes, but what does that have to do with prayer?’ Well, let me tell you…

One morning as I was washing my face, I started to pray. And I linked the significance of my skincare routine to what I was praying. I started with cleansing, and as I rubbed the cleanser into my skin, I started to say sorry for the things I had done wrong that day. When it came to wiping away the cleanser, it helped me to remember that I am forgiven. Jesus was the eternal sacrifice so that I may be forgiven, always. And that really helped to engage with God daily. Remembering the sacrifice of sending the Son to die for me, so that I may be forgiven and have eternal life, that is so important to think about every day. And it’s so easy to forget, especially in the good times of life, so every time I cleanse my face, I am reminded that I am made clean, only because Jesus shed His blood for me.

The next step in my skin care routine is my toner. Now I’m not ENTIRELY sure what toner actually does. But I’m pretty sure it is something to do with restoring balance to my skin. So as I spray toner onto my face, and pat it dry with a cotton wool pad, I ask for God’s guidance, that I will have a balanced life, that God will guide me to the places that He has called me to. And my final part of my skincare routine is my moisturiser. That is the nourishing part of my skincare routine, and for this prayer I give God thanks. I say thank you Lord for everything you have done for me this day, and I praise God for the things that have brought me joy and nourishment.

I love doing this, because it helps me to settle my mind on God. It is one of the first things I do in the morning, and the last thing I do at night. So it really helps me to focus on God, and reflect on the day ahead, or that has passed. It’s a little quirky, but it really works for me. I am able to utilise my time spent looking after my skin as time spent with God too! It’s a physical and spiritual nourishment all at once!

So my prayer for each person who is reading this is that you are able to take the every day, mundane tasks and give them to God. You are able to reflect on the ways in which God can fit into the repetitive tasks, and spend time with God whilst you do them. Please do pray whilst you do your skincare routine, or perhaps it’s when you are walking your dog, or when you are doing the washing up. Whenever it is that you find that you could be spending that time with God, whilst continuing to do whatever it is you do, I pray that you will have the courage to step out and pray at the times that are least expected. Make a routine of it. I have and it feels so good to know that I will be spending time with God whilst looking after the skin my Saviour gave me.

Jess

x

#christianwomen #prayer #skincare