. . . there seems to be an epidemic of watchdogs who believe they’ve been placed on this planet to point out the flaws of others. Take, for instance, my friend Juliette’s tale. As she waited her turn at the punch bowl of a private party’s fancy-schmancy oyster bar in Maine, a stranger walked up and gawked at her face, using the same intensity one would engage in while tweezing a chin hair. When Juliette asked if something was wrong, Ms. Hoity Toity Nasty had this to say:

“Did you know your eyebrows are supposed to be twins? Yours look like sisters, not twins.”

At which point Juliette used her perfectly manicured acrylic nails to pull out the woman’s tongue.

No, she didn’t, but yes, I think it’s possible such an action crossed her mind. What she did was nothing. She just stood there, stunned.

Upon hearing this account, my first reaction was to crack up, but it wasn’t Juliette’s, so I tried really, really hard to act mature and empathize as she told me what happened. (Still, I must admit I enjoyed this story, mainly because the negative focus was on someone other than me.)

Let me be clear. Juliette is stunning. She walks into a room and all eyes—and eyebrows— focus on her. With six-foot legs from her ankles to her sculptured cheekbones and a Julia Roberts smile, not to mention a sense of impeccable style, she draws attention. Typically, not this kind of attention. This is the kind of attention I typically draw, although I’m sure Eyebrow Lady would have contended that my eyebrows aren’t even related and probably resemble an EKG print in full-fledged arrhythmia.

This obviously was a case of jealousy. Eyebrow Lady’s way of making herself feel validated. Fortunately, Juliette knows who she is in Christ. She knows that God’s opinion needs to be the only one that shapes her self-perception regardless of the shape of her eyebrows. Which, let’s be perfectly clear, are professionally micro-bladed and flawless.

Put yourself in Juliette’s eyebrows. How would you have reacted? Would you have bolted to the bathroom or your car? Would you have simply considered the source and dismissed it? Or would you have poked Eyebrow Lady’s eyes out? Most people, I’m sad to say, would be wounded by such an encounter. They would permit the eyebrow evaluator to ruin their evening . . . and perhaps the next few years of their life.