life in Mercyville

The Best of Haute Couture

"Playing dress up begins at age five and never really ends." 
One glance at my Pinterest board reveals that I like clothing. I am certainly not the latest fashionista, but style I like - sometimes classic, sometimes bohemian, always neutral colors, casual with bangles and scarves of course! I saw every episode of What Not to Wear at least twice ~ appreciating that they would dress women as they were, not how we envision we should look. While I enjoy clothing ~ it's important to me as a woman and mother of a teen daughter to keep the most important attributes of style at the forefront of my mind.

"As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness, and patience. 
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you many have against one another.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
And over all these virtues put on love."
Colossians 3:12-14

We can adorn ourselves with the latest fashion, ensure our hair and make-up are just right, and finish our look with the perfect scarf or bangle (your finishing touches may be different). However, if in our fashion fun these things begin to take the leading role we have lost our perspective. These are merely the accessories to the things we should truly adorn ourselves with: remembering to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness & love.

I can quickly lose sight of the most important, the things that sustain, can be life giving. The earrings I choose or that pair of heels will not impact the lives I teach, encourage the single mom down the street, or give hope to those who are walking through a valley; BUT when I clothe myself in the virtues mentioned in Colossians - my style takes on a whole new meaning, suddenly my style touches lives. 

PS
Haute couture is fashion that is constructed by hand (without the use of sewing machines and sergers/overlockers) from start to finish, made from high quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques.

Therefore I conclude that the master dress maker is God himself, when wearing His style it certainly turns heads and changes lives ~ let's make sure Colossians 3:12-14 is a part of our daily wardrobe!