Jul 25

Jul 25 Clothed in his glory...

In today's society our value is treated like a commodity, increasing or decreasing in importance based on trends, careers, wealth and social status.

We are taught to 'use what you've got' to your advantage, be confident but not too confident and find your worth from fleeting, unreliable sources.

From the very beginning God really placed on my heart the desire to show people how valuable they are to him through this blog. After writing a number of blog posts I soon decided a series would be a perfect way to take you on the journey, that I have and am still going on.

Over 5 weeks, every Wednesday I'll be posting a new installment on Value. I pray that you would be reminded of how important and valuable you are to God. You are so loved by him for just the way you are.

This is Part 2.

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:9

It's amazing what the right outfit can do for your confidence or how when you hate it, it can ruin your day. Ever since I was little, my Dad would always say I seemed to change outfits every couple of hours, mixing and matching different top and skirts and hats. I loved expressing myself through my clothes and always appreciated when everything was coordinated.

Growing up in church, there were certain 'givens', especially when you were on stage - to make sure your skirts were long enough and tops were appropriate but this was never seen as a hassle for me. It was about what you wanted people's attention drawn too and for me it was always to Jesus.

No matter how much I loved expressing my creativity through my clothes - I never wanted them to detract from sharing God's love and presence with the people I came into contact with.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Colossians 3: 12-13

As I grew older I noticed that certain compromises kept being made by people around me - it was a dress 'that covered' but was extremely tight, jeans but a skimpy top - I began to think I was some weird teenage girl to not want to dress that way.

But then I realized that many girls would spend the whole night readjusting and positioning their clothing because they were uncomfortable . I didn’t get it - wasn’t this clothing meant to make you feel more confident?

All I knew was, that no matter if it made me 'look pretty' or not, I wasn’t going to even buy the clothes -let alone wear them- if I didn’t feel comfortable in them. Now I'm not talking about wearing baggy pants and an oversized t-shirt everywhere -

I'm talking about that self-assuredness you have knowing that you have clothed yourself in a way that attracts people to your heart and your mind rather than your body.

This doesn’t have to be difficult, it doesn’t have to be limiting -if anything you can be more creative and expressive knowing that you don’t have to copy all of the fashion trends. And you know what is the most beautiful thing?

It's when people know that dressing modestly doesn’t make them any less attractive. Because whilst I clothe myself physically in garments, I pray everyday that God would clothe me in kindness, humility and grace.

Dressing in a way that doesn't detract from that isn't a hassle, it's actually liberating because it becomes not about me but about God. I don’t have to rely on compliments from people or 'pretending' to be confident but instead I know that all I need is found in him.