QUESTION: We are having lots of trouble in our home about the way I spend my money on myself—the number of dresses I buy and the changes of my hairdo. My mother irritates me with her old-fashioned ideas. My father is strait-laced. He says I spend too much money on clothes. My brother, who is one of those conservative stay-at-home-close-to-mamma boys, tells me my dresses and hairdos are worldly. The girls at the store where I work say it is my own business how many dresses I buy and how I fix my hair. I am 19 years old—soon will be 20. Do I have to kowtow to my family in these matters?                       ANSWER:

This is a new experience for me—discussing a question that involves modem hairdos. As far as that particular subject is concerned I prefer not to comment beyond this one observation: Some of the “hairdos I see nowadays are in my opinion atrocious. I understand they have fancy names. One of them, I believe, is called the ‘“bouf-fant look.” I think that is the one that calls for a lock or two draped over the forehead under the mound of hair that resembles a hay stack.

What concerns me more is the way you speak of your family. Your mother has “old·fashioned” ideas. Your father is “strait-laced.” Your brother is “conservative.” Well, young lady, you had better thank God for such a family. We don’t have too many like that nowadays. One of our big social problems today—and a host of pastors will confirm this—is how to handle moral lapses that have their roots in homes where mothers have repudiated the principles of old-fashioned decorum and propriety, where fathers have few scruples about the conduct of their daughters, and where brothers have no regard for impressions their sisters make on others.

What you need is not a new hairdo but a new attitude towards your people who love you more than you love them. By the way, how much of your income do you give to Kingdom causes? Just who is first in your life?