What You See Is What You Get or Is it?   

Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks.  Philip Yancey

Have you ever thought about what people see when they look at you?  In the past people have come up to me and told me what they see when they look at me.  It is not always an accurate picture.  Our outer appearance can be deceiving. 

When I was in college I wanted to be a fashion designer so I went into Fashion Merchandising as my major.  The thing it taught me was how to merchandise.  Go figure!  I have always liked clothes and I love to mix and match plus I love a bargain so when you look at my appearance most of the time I look coordinated and professional. 

The thing is that is just the outer shell of who I am. I am going to tell you some of my fashion secrets.  These are my go to fashion tips when time is short.  Back when I had cancer I lost all my hair and since I had never had short hair it kind of grew on me so now I keep my hair short.  The thing is I don’t like to spend money on a hairdresser so I cut my own hair.  The way this works is if your hair sticks out somewhere you don’t want it to, cut it off.  This seems to work for me so for the past seven years I haven’t been to a hairdresser.

I like to wear open toe shoes in the summer and I also like to have my nails painted.  Here’s the thing.  If I am in a hurry my theory is only paint the toes that show.  This only works with shoes that only show a few toes but it saves a ton of time. 

Another tip is always carry safety pins and packing tape.  Safety pins can make a skirt that’s too big fit and a little packing tape can make your shoe quit sliding off your foot or keep your loose hem in place.  Then there are the magic markers.  You know how you are walking in heels on a sidewalk and your heel goes into the crack in the sidewalk and it scrapes the surface off the heel.  If your heels are black use the black marker or red use the red marker and so on. 

Today I am wearing what I call my Dr. Seuss socks.  It is cold today so I decided to wear boots but I couldn’t find my black socks.  Today I am wearing purple because we have a Purple Ranch meeting this evening so my Dr. Seuss socks don’t really match what I am wearing.  They are turquoise and white stripes.  I mean who is going to see them?  

This brings up my next point.  God doesn’t care what I look like on the outside.  He is more concerned about what is on the inside in my heart.  He wants me to spend more time on my heart than anything else.  My heart’s condition is of utmost importance to Him because that will reflect how we treat everyone around us.  The thing is most of us are a mess on the inside even though we portray something very different on the outside. I admit I am a mess in progress but I don’t want you to think that the outer me is all you get because sometimes the outer me doesn’t look anything like the inner me.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, please help me to remember that the inner me is the most important part that I need to work on.  The older I get the less I care about what people think about the way I look on the outside.  The only way others can see the condition of my heart is to share my imperfections.  Thank you for opening my heart to others and showing them the imperfect me in an imperfect world.        

Scripture:   Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.  Psalm 51:10-13