clothe yourselves.

Sarah Nottle sent me this link and said it reminded her of me. I thought about it when I was getting dressed. Dress for the day you want to have, not for the one that’s trying to have you. This whole different outfits every day thing is starting to exhaust me already. It takes a lot more time, thought and energy than I’d originally realized.

Because even if I decide “eh, this will work….” I remember that I HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE OF IT. AND SHOW PEOPLE. So. much. work.

This morning, I only halfway got dressed. I almost just wore the shirt I slept in, because… I’m just that lazy sometimes. I even got as far as taking a picture when I remembered… Dress for the day you WANT to have. I took a minute and thought through the day I wanted to have. and I realized that having a proactive, meaningful day… meant putting on a shirt that didn’t remind me of crawling under blankets and sleeping. It was a very small change, and luckily I was able to find another shirt of the same color.. because I really wanted to wear Valentine’s Day today.

^^That is the day that was trying to have me.^^
^^and that is more the day I was trying to have.^^9/31
Jacket: BCBG via Marshall’s
Tank top: Forever 21
Pink shirt: American Living
pants & shoes: Lauren Conrad

and let’s not forget…

Necklace: amylynnbuttchin on Etsy

 

The whole ordeal reminded me of Romans 13:14…
Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

There are a couple of places in the Bible that do an exceptionally great job of messing me up inside. The first one to appear is the moment when God sends Adam and Eve out of the Garden. Because they ate from the tree, they realized they were naked and it caused them shame. Before God sends them out, he lavishes them with love in a way that just kills me. He CLOTHES THEM. It was their own fault they realized they were naked, but God still makes clothes for them.

And from then on, we started wearing clothes to cover up our nakedness. It’s turned into a whole industry and gives us identity and we’ve come a long way since then.

But “dressing for the day” takes on a whole new meaning in the light of this verse. Clothing myself with Jesus means to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. To be intentional. To clothe ourselves with Jesus and dress for the day means to take off what we wore in the darkness, when nobody could see us.

On Monday Beckie brought up a verse and my response was “I hate that verse.” Just listen. It says that whoever does evil hates the light and won’t come into the light for fear that they will be exposed. But people who live by the truth actually come INTO the light, so that what they do will be seen by God.

How we dress in darkness, both physically and spiritually, is rarely how we would dress ourselves in light. Just like I had to fight the urge to wear half of my pajamas out in public, I had to consciously put on real people clothes. To spiritually dress for the day I want to have, I have to take off my darkness clothes and put on the clothes of someone who knows they will be seen. I have to take off my pajama pants of impatience, my sleepshirt of gossip and my bedtime socks (weird new habit) of cynicism. Then I have to put. on. Jesus. The day that tries to have me rarely involves him.

I don’t even know how I got started on all of that, but there you go.