Yup, you read it right, LICE checker, someone who checks for lice for another person. The reality is, the World Race prepares you for spiritual growth but it doesn’t prevent you from getting lice. I got lice, my team got lice, and I got lice…wait, I’ve already said it. After countless times of getting my hair checked and checking my teammates’ hair for lice, I can say that we have gotten fairly extraordinary (haha jk) at handling lice.
So here are some tips for all you lovelies out there (hopefully NOT) fighting this long battle.
Have Grace.
First thing first, you need to have grace for yourself and for the other person, doesn’t matter who has the lice. It’s not a pretty or glorious thing to have lice. And I’ve learned that I’m not worse than anybody because I have lice, and it’s not my fault that lice found me; I just wasn’t careful enough to prevent or protect myself from it because I didn’t know any better. If you’re the one checking for lice, understand that having lice does not define the person, you could have it too! So treat the person with lice with grace, it’s not the person’s fault that they got it, you were just lucky to not have gotten it.
Have Patience.
After researching about getting rid of lice on the Internet, many people have made the statement that getting rid of lice entirely takes time, so be prepared to fight a long battle.
For those of you with lice, having lice picked out once does not equal victory—the lice hatch eggs (or nits) so even if you don’t see any lice and have already gotten nits picked out, the chance that you’ll find new nits the next day is highly likely. So don’t get upset that you’ve found new ones, instead, be thankful that you are able recognize them and are on your way to pull them out.
For those of you checking for lice, have patience because if you don’t help the other person out, lice is bound to stay and maybe even start to go to other people. Some practical tips are listening to music or listening to podcast episodes during lice check so that you don’t focus on the tedious work but instead help the person with a positive attitude.
Be Diligent.
This one is more for the lice checker. Lice checking is one task where you cannot ignore any part of the head—you have to go through the entire head, strand by strand and with concentration, so that you don’t miss anything and thus prevents lice from multiplying overnight. Being diligent means not ignoring the details, it means to actually pick out the nits and the lice on every single strand even if you’re not sure, and it means to wash your hands, the comb, and everything that was involved in the process so that the nits and lice that you picked out do not remain anywhere near you.
Rely on Each Other.
And this is for the person with the lice. It’s embarrassing enough learning that you’ve got lice, but asking for someone to touch your life-sucking and eye-burning head is almost shameful. DO NOT fall into the trap! If you don’t ask for help it will not solve the problem—you can’t do this on your own. Instead, kindly and humbly ask someone who loves you (I hope they do) to ask for a lice check. Yes, it may be a bit inconvenient for that person, but relying on others is essential and that person will realize that they are in this battle with you and they will soon be more willing to help because it’s for everyone’s benefit. One day, they might come to you for help too.
Apply treatment thoroughly.
There are many ways to treat lice. We’ve tried essential oils, Listerine, lice shampoo, and even dying our hair. We’ve found that hair dying and lice shampoo have worked better so far (we are still in the battle to check for everyone on my team). The point is, aside from doing the labor, you will also need actual treatment. Whatever chemicals they put in the dye and lice shampoo are more powerful than our human flesh because they kill the lice/nits and they DIE!
Have your lice checker rub the treatment in your hair (on your scalp specifically) section by section—make sure that every single part of your head is getting the treatment.
Repeat.
Yup. Repeat this long and strenuous process everyday until the lice is completely out of the person’s head. It’s pretty self-explanatory but going back to checking and asking for someone to check ensures a lice-free head for the rest of the night. Imagine the first night you found 36 nits&lice, omg. But the next night after you’ve done the lice treatment, you found 10. And then the next 5, and then 3…’til you find none for a few days will you know that you are lice-free! Persistence is key in fighting the lice, so don’t give up hope!
Okay. That’s all that I can think of, and…do these tips sound somewhat familiar to you?
If lice and nits represented the enemy and his agenda and the treatment represented healing and the works of the Holy Spirit, does this blog make sense now? Yes, my team and I did get lice/nits, it’s been known for about a month now and we are still checking for each other’s head for lice. While checking for lice for one of my teammates this morning, it made sense to me that what I was doing parallels to what we are called to do as brothers and sisters in Christ, which is to go beyond keeping each other accountable in fighting the devil and overcoming our sinful habits, and to lay down our lives and fight for one another so that we can all live in the freedom that God’s intended for us.
I probably sound crazy right now for making this connection, but the reality is that the enemy is like lice, trying to go around places in our lives to make us feel shameful and timid, to make us think that once our weakness is exposed it will drive people away and we will face rejection. The truth is, we need grace, patience, diligence, dependence, the Holy Spirit, and persistence to walk in freedom. Know that getting lice is not your fault and that this will show you the people you should surround yourself with—those who will accept you for who you are and will fight this battle with you and pick lice out of your hair!
