The scales said what!?!
I don't know what to wear!
How we look, what we wear, how we feel about our physical appearance can color our entire attitude, change the outlook of our day. When it is going good, we feel good. We walk with a strut (yes, even Mennonites can strut a little), our shoulders back and our heads held high. There is nothing we can't do.
You need me to skydive today? No problem! But could I skip the helmet perhaps? You see, it's my hair...and you wouldn't want to ruin my day, right?
But...
When it is not going good, and your entire closet is flung on your bed, you have tried eight different ways to fix your hair and you've gained two pounds overnight, then it all feels wrong. Suddenly, you are short tempered with the ones you love. Your head is down along with the corners of your mouth, and your eyes are dejected and sad. When you walk, it's as if you are carrying a backpack of rocks. You need me to skydive today? I guess so. I mean, my day can't get any worse. And please, can I wear a helmet? You see, it's my hair...maybe if nobody can see it...
I still have frequent dreams where I am trying to get ready for school (back in the mid 1980's) and I just can't get my hair right. I always end up late and usually with no clothes on at all except for a jacket. In these dreams, I always have a pimple. My 1980's hair had to have just the right swoop and pouf in the front (in my dreams and in real life) and it was so frustrating to run out of time to get it just right. Then, on those days that everything fell into place, I would have gym class and all the hairspray in the world couldn't maintain the "look". Of course I never tried Aqua-net.
The point of all this? So much emphasis is placed on outward appearance by media and the world around us, that it is hard for us, for me, not to. I like to look good, and feel good as much as the next guy or gal, but when I let it affect how I treat others or let it ruin a perfectly good day otherwise, then I am placing way too much focus there. I don't think I have to let my appearance be one of not caring at all, maybe just not to the point that it is all I think about.
Balance...my favorite. When I feel good about what I am wearing, my hair looks acceptable and I know I have been exercising and eating right, then I do have more confidence, more ambition. I can put some focus there, but that's just it. Some focus, not all my focus. I will have bad hair days. I will have days that nothing fits right. I will have fluctuations in my weight.
So what am I going to do about it when it's not going well?
a.) Go skydiving.
b.) Put on my pajamas and go back to bed.
c.) Wear a hat.
d.) Find something that is okay and put it on, but at the same time, put my focus on something else that matters more.
It could always be worse. I have not had to lose my hair due to medical treatments. I have not lost the ability to exercise and eat healthy. I have enough clothes to outfit a small island village.
I have it good. I need to turn my focus onto being thankful, transforming the inner me into something beautiful that comes through on the outside. Kinda like being turned inside-out.
1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Peter 3:3-4
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
Love,
Dianne
No comments:
Post a Comment