When our daughter Grace turned 16, she wanted a tattoo. She wanted one bad.<\/p>\n

I had always believed tattoos were a terrible idea. First, the Bible says so (aka \u2013 a Christian\u2019s favorite way to shut down a conversation\u2026) And also, I felt God created us the way we are \u2013 with clear skin and no ink because He liked us that way and didn\u2019t feel His handiwork needed to be improved upon.<\/p>\n

However, those arguments don\u2019t work. The Bible does mention tattoos (Leviticus 19:28)<\/a>, but if Christians today accept that passage as timeless law, so too, would we have to observe the following: \u00a0No eating shellfish or pork – locusts, crickets and grasshoppers, however, are encouraged. \u00a0No wearing any type of blended fabric and bathing after sex would be mandatory. \u00a0Men would also have untrimmed beards and be allowed many wives. \u00a0And women – oh my – we’d be killing turtle doves and pigeons left and right as we lived up to the host of rules regarding childbearing and menstruation! \u00a0 No – I most definitely do NOT want to keep Levitical Laws!<\/p>\n

We cannot pick and choose which old testament laws we\u2019ll follow \u2013 either they are contextual and not explicitly meant for us today, or, we must agree to them all. Additionally, if God didn\u2019t want us to improve upon His creation, why do I not object to make-up, hair-cuts, ear-piercing, and working out?<\/p>\n

My arguments against tattoos were weak at best. But I still thought tattoos were stupid.<\/p>\n

Then Grace asked for one. And she presented me with a well-thought out proposal that was difficult to refute. She reminded me of the following story that happened to some dear friends of ours:<\/p>\n

Our friends had raised their children in a solid Christian home and taught them all the tenets of the faith. After highschool, however, their oldest son rejected Christianity. He chose to live life on the edges \u2013 doing all the things Christians consider \u201cbig sins\u201d. When numerous problems began mounting in his life, his father tried to reason with him: \u201cYou know, son, I think if you returned to your faith you would find life easier. I think you\u2019re making life harder than it has to be and coming back to Jesus would help.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

His son\u2019s response was legendary. He whipped back with this retort: \u201cAre you KIDDING ME?? No way, dad! Right now, I\u2019m choosing the easy way! I\u2019m choosing to live my life MY WAY! \u00a0If I were a Christian, THAT\u2019S when my life would get difficult \u2013 because I would follow Christ with ALL of me. I could never be like all the Christians I know \u2013 who pick and choose the parts of Christianity they want to follow. No way. I\u2019d be ALL-IN. I\u2019d be BALLS-TO-THE-WALL, dad. I think life should be hard for a true Christian \u2013 not easy. For me, there\u2019s no compelling argument to follow Jesus because I just don\u2019t see anybody living ALL-IN.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When the father shared that story with us, he said, \u201cHe had me. He\u2019s right, you know. Not many Christians really do live \u2018all-in\u2019 and \u2018balls-to-the-wall\u2019. It really isn’t a compelling movement to follow when most people only follow it half-heartedly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So\u2026.. Grace reiterated this story and then lays this on me: \u201cI want \u2018ALL-IN\u2019 tattooed on my wrist. I want to be constantly reminded to live for Christ – all of me – not just part of me.\u201d She had given it serious thought, and wanted \u201cALL-IN\u201d written in Arabic because it would remind her of when we lived in Morocco and she felt the most \u201call-in\u201d. \u00a0She wanted it on her wrist because that is where the nails were driven that held Jesus to the cross. \u00a0She wanted the lettering facing HER, because this was HER reminder: \u00a0to live so ALL-IN that her Christian faith would compel others to follow Christ, too.<\/p>\n

At least she wasn\u2019t asking for a \u201cBALLS-TO-THE-WALL\u201d tattoo\u2026<\/p>\n

She started asking for the tattoo when she was sixteen. And Paul and I both said no. No way. We refused to let our lovely olive-skinned, underage teen daughter get inked. We have two surf-loving, guitar\/drum playing, fairtrade-coffee-drinking, long-haired hippy sons in their young twenties and they\u2019re not even inked yet.<\/p>\n

I told her to go read Leviticus 19:28. Proof! KaPow! \u00a0(maybe she wouldn’t notice the parts\u00a0<\/em>about beards, wives, and menstruation…)<\/i><\/p>\n

She told me to go read 1 Corinthians 10:31<\/a> and Romans 10:4<\/a><\/p>\n

Touche\u2019<\/p>\n

I told her I\u2019d think about it.<\/p>\n

And her pursuit of that tattoo only built momentum over the coming year. If she ever fell short of the character we believed she had within her, she would say, \u201cWell maybe if I had a tattoo to remind me of how to live\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n

She would often point out revered friends and\/or popular role models who had tattoos and then ask, \u201cDo you think [that particular person] lacks good judgment?\u201d<\/p>\n

She was good at this. Really good.<\/p>\n

But as her 17^{th<\/sup> birthday inched closer, she hit me with the winning stroke:<\/p>\n}

\u201cMom, you know how the Bible says that our bodies are like temples? Well I was thinking – we find it perfectly acceptable and even good and necessary to adorn the temples, or churches, with things like stained glass windows, beautiful architecture and ornate carvings. And we believe this to be good because all of if should point others to the holiness and beauty of Christ\u201d (I started to regret that we had taken her to numerous grand cathedrals all over Europe and Central America\u2026) \u201cWell, the way I see it, if we tattoo our bodies with beautiful art, or any symbol that points us or others to Christ, we are really trying to accomplish the same purpose. Only this is with our body-temples, not the building-temples. I think tattoos should have meaning. They could be art, or words, or symbols, but their meaning would be to remind ourselves or others that we serve a creative God, who delights in beauty, and is somehow glorified when we create beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had me.<\/p>\n

So on her seventeenth birthday, I took her to get her first tattoo. And I got my first one, too:
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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