Is your source of protection an illusion?


The Faithful Living Newsletter is your weekly companion for faith-filled natural hair care and spiritual wisdom. Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here to stay connected.

The Faithful Living Newsletter
📅 Sunday, December 7, 2025

Dear Reader,

We use the word protective a lot.

In hair care, it’s shorthand for styles that give your strands a break.
But not every covering nourishes. Some simply contain.

The same is true spiritually. Not everything that looks like safety actually brings peace. And not everything called protection leads to restoration. Let's dig into it a little more.

Here's what I pulled together for you this week...

📍FOR YOUR FEED
5 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Protective Styles (and How to Fix It)

Protective styling is the go-to method for retaining length. But is it really? There’s definitely many other ways to retain length that do not include protective styling, but doing protective styles is definitely a major way to do so. Read more 👉🏼



📆 UPCOMING EVENTS

This December, I’m sharing a month of purposeful gifts, tools, and resources that support you as you care for your hair and your heart with God. These offerings are here to help you realign, restore what’s been neglected, and step into 2026 with renewed consistency, clarity, and peace. Here’s a glimpse of what’s ahead:

→ The Holiday Hair Growth Bundle (Dec 10-12)

→ The Faithful Living Bundle (Dec 15-17)

→ The Holiday Abundance Bundle (Dec 15-18)

→ 7 Days of Christmas (Dec 19-25)


🙌🏼 TREASURE THIS

The Illusion of Protection

Protection, by design, should reduce harm. But not everything labeled protective does that.

We stay silent in conversations that matter, telling ourselves we’re being peacemakers, when we’re actually avoiding conflict.


We hold back vulnerability in relationships, calling it wisdom, when it’s fear of being hurt again. I can personally attest to this.


We stay busy with spiritual routines, believing we’re anchored, when we’re actually just afraid to sit still with God.

Even in caring for our hair, especially when it’s fine and delicate, we can make choices that look protective but create hidden damage:

  • A sleek bun worn too tightly
  • A style kept in too long

Tension that starts small but leads to breakage. It’s called “protective,” but it’s not really protecting.

Some protective choices weaken what they were meant to preserve.
Some boundaries we call wisdom are really barriers to connection.


Even in our faith, we can mistake our routines for refuge.

But God’s protection is different. His presence does not require us to disappear in order to be safe.

His presence strengthens us as it shields us. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is clarity, comfort, peace, and yes, protection.

As we get closer to the end of another year, I want to encourage you to lean into the Lord. Claim and declare Psalm 91 over every area of your life.


🙏 SACRED REFLECTIONS

You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. —Psalm 32:7

True protection surrounds you. It covers you and literally sings over you. When trouble comes, if you find yourself all knotted up inside, then you aren't resting in your hiding place. It's time to step closer to the One who truly protects.

Blessings and favor to you,

Michelle


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Michelle Smith

Ordained Evangelist & Natural Hair Coach

Founder, Fine Natural Hair and Faith
& The Faithful Living Shop


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The Faithful Living Newsletter: Nurturing Crown & Spirit

A Sunday resource for faith-filled natural hair care tips and spiritual wisdom. Faith for living and hair care expertise delivered to over 1K Christian women.

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