Day 14 -
I've been thinking a lot lately about the way clothes may us feel and the power they sometimes have in ours & our children's lives. I attended an event this weekend were I was surrounded by a large number of girls. Most ranging in age from 8-11.
It seemed everywhere I looked the majority of the girls were sporting a very popular boot. My observation of this did not come from a place of judging but rather, a mere perception. It made me think about the power clothing has in our lives & why that is?
We all have a favorite outfit that boosts our ego whenever we put it on. We search for the perfect outfit for a job a interview. One that will help us feel confident & professional. We look for that formal dress for a dance or gala that will make us feel beautiful.
I watch my girls in this process. Watch them as they transform from themselves into princesses simply by putting on a dress. Something changes in them. They truly believe they have become that princess. You can see it in the way they sing, dance & curtsy. You can see it in the way their faces light up! Why is it that clothes are such a catalyst in this metamorphosis?
I can venture a guess. It may be for a brief instance we are taken away from our realty into something magical. Or, it transforms us from what we perceive as our ordinary or ugly into extraordinary & beautiful. I have no answers for this. I really don't. But for a moment just imagine our lives without this power clothing seems to hold.
Imagine a world were we never agonize over what to wear. We never feel insecure about the clothing choices we made. A world were we don't spend a sizable proportion of family resources on things like a pair of boots.
Or even greater than this, a world were a child isn't bullied for what they wear. You see I think I noticed all these boots, because I noticed girls sizing each other up & down. We all do it from time to time. Check out what each other is wearing and form our opinions.
But most likely the real reason this behavior struck a nerve, was because I know first hand how it feels to be bullied over your clothing. "You expecting a flood?" echos through my mind just like it did on the elementary school playground when I had a growth spurt and all my pants were no longer long enough. Or, "Nice boy jeans." when my Lee jeans were of the boys variety rather than the girls. Words, that in that moment, took away my confidence and stung like hell.
Last weekend I observed something else, too, about the girls and their boots. They may have been beautifully dressed on the inside, but their spirit did not exude that same beauty. The world focuses on what we look like on the outside. Our Heavenly Father focuses on what we look like on the inside. We need to ask ourselves, "Our we putting more time and effort on our outside rather than inside?"
While there is nothing wrong with wanting to look pretty, we need to make sure we find the balance. God would rather see us working on being drop-dead gorgeous on the inside. I'm trying to encourage my children to also seek out friends that embrace these same values.
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him." The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Samuel 16:7
In other words, if you stand two girls next to each other and one is Miss Teen USA whose beauty is limited to physical beauty, and the other young lady is a more average-looking girl who loves the Lord more than anything, she is the more beautiful girl in the eyes of God. God would rather see us working on becoming beautiful on the inside - the kind of beauty that lasts forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment