Pretty Clothes

A lot of people are doing the 30 days of thankfulness thing. I have been doing it during my Jesus time, journaling something I'm thankful for and then spending time in prayer about it. Today, I am totally thankful for pretty clothes, but more specifically, a dress and 2 sweater I got yesterday. I LOVE them!!! I love how I look in them, I love how they feel. And I love how I feel in them. I just love them and can't wait for it to get a little colder so I can wear them.

Okay, so don't write me off as a totally valley girl who is obsessed with clothes and material things. Most days, I rock a t-shirt, jeans, hoodie and a pair of converse with a hole in them. This whole "I like pretty clothes" is a really new thing for me. Its new for 2 reasons. First, I have reached a point in my life where I need "grown-up clothes." Meaning I need clothes I can wear to an interview, internship, or even class. And as scary as all that is, a new dress makes the entering the grown up world a little less scary. The second, and more important reason I have developed this love of clothes, is I feel good in them. There was a point in my life several years ago when I wasn't excited about clothes. I didn't want pretty clothes because I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I put too much value in worldly beauty, being a certain size, having the "right" brand of clothes or flawless makeup every day. My confidence was a day-to-day thing. If I had a bad hair day, my confidence was shattered for the whole day. Even on days when I had a good hair day or pretty shirt, I couldn't enjoy it. It felt like a chore. I desperately wanted Harry Potter to be real so I could get an invisibility cloak and just hide under it.

But then God started teaching me to see myself the way He sees me. Slowly but surely, I started to see myself as His creation, starting seeing His beauty in me. I stopped caring about what was considered beautiful and started to become comfortable in my own skin. Once I became comfortable in my own skin, I was able to enjoy things like a pretty new dress.

This doesn't mean I always dress up. Right now I'm in a campus ministry shirt, jeans that I febrezed this morning, and hair in a messy bun. And it also doesn't mean I feel "pretty" every day either. Like today. Today was not a "pretty" day. Mostly because I rolled outta bed at 10:47 for an 11:00 class. (Hence the messy bun.) But I still feel comfortable in my own skin and one bad hair day doesn't change that.

Being excited about pretty clothes or not caring that my hair is a hot mess reminded me to be thankful that I'm comfortable in my own skin. To thank God for teaching  me to see myself the way He sees me.