Dress What You Got and Make it Hot!!!

Well, my birthday is this week!  Now, this isn’t a shameful way to prompt well wishes, although I will gladly receive them, it’s just that I have been thinking.  Birthdays are just numbers, or really accomplishments.  This week, I have achieved the number 48 and it doesn’t scare me one bit!  Oh, I realize I have now progressed to my “late” forties, but who cares!  Well, actually, I do!

Like most women, I have yet to attain complete satisfaction with myself.  I suppose I am still waiting for all the planets to align!  Not going to happen!  So, here is what I have decided, I am not perfect, won’t ever be and don’t want to be, so for now, I am going to dress what I got and make it hot! 

Let me explain . . . if I analyze myself for too long, I begin to focus on only the negative  or undesirable things about myself.  For example, mercy is not my gift.  When they are sick, my girls ask, “So, how many days of sympathy do I get?”  Pretty pathetic!  I am not proud of that, nevertheless, it is reality.  I can learn to be better at that, and I think I have, but there is always progress that can be made.  For now, I am going to allow that lack of mercy to be dressed and viewed for what it is while I continue to work on it.  That, ladies, is hot because it is honest.

Another example; of the many physical flaws I can find with myself, the one that drives me the craziest is the flab!  That annoying giggle I feel when I walk or run on the treadmill.  Drives me crazy to see that muffin top spill over my beautiful skinny jeans! Doesn’t matter how much the jeans cost, the spread is still there!  Well, here’s the deal, it is there, so I am going to embrace it,  for now.  However, while I am working on it, I am going to dress it because I got it and make it look as good as I can! 

At this point, if you are still reading at all, you are wondering, “Where is the spiritual context for all of this vanity?!” Please do not remind me that charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting!  I get it!  Well, our theme for the Her Voice blog has been “Sabbath.”  According to Webster’s, that word literally means to rest from work.  It dawned on me a few weeks ago how much time I spend obsessing over things that are a complete waste of time.  No one else even notices the things I focus on, am I right here?!!! If I am truly going to observe and embrace “Sabbath” in my life, then I need to bring these areas into submission and allow the Father to cover them for me. 

Suddenly, my attitude has changed.  I am no longer focusing on these “trouble” spots in my life because my attention is drawn to the effort to change them rather than the results or lack of results.  This is where I find my “Sabbath!”  Rest comes easily when I embrace ALL God has given me because these things are mine. 

Change never comes as quickly as we want it. Rest is many times elusive.  The process is always where the Lord manages to take hold of us and make something truly beautiful.  Dress what you got ladies, because it’s ALL hot!