You Are How You Look...Or Are You?

I spent much of the past 3 days in warm sweats and fuzzy socks. The fireplace drew me like a magnet, and the easy chair had a great view of the television. Even though my laptop was charged, I spent much more time playing Words with Friends than planning lessons or developing our new literacy program. I just wasn't feeling terribly productive.
               I did venture out into the cold on Tuesday. Though school was still closed, I dressed in warm work clothes and headed to the library. I made my list and got down to business. It amazed me how much of a difference a change of scenery and attire affected my productivity.

It can also work the other way for me. There are times when I feel and act pretty confident, and then I look in the mirror. My hair is flat, my complexion is uneven, my eye make-up smeared. It's a shocking reality check. What was I thinking acting like I was "with-it" when actually I look like this?!
              I've been on FaceTime and Skype a handful of times. Every time it shocks me how uncomfortable I feel when I see myself as the caller sees me.  Even though I look in the mirror every day without flinching, something about a camera just brings out the worst.  Inevitably I have to quickly finger comb my hair and adjust the phone or computer to reflect the best vantage point.

I heard a story the other day about a young entrepreneur in Mogadishu.    There was no dry-cleaner in that city, and anyone who wanted to get anything dry cleaned would have to fly to the nearest city with a dry-cleaner.  Once he opened his dry-cleaning business, people were wearing suits again.  It made a difference.

Dress codes in schools and at work…Uniforms...The clothes make the man.  What we wear affects the way we feel about ourselves.  Buying bathing suits is a least favorite chore for most women, because, as my friend says, “Women over 40 just look better with clothes on.”  Our culture affirms that appearance is important.

 What you wear is much easier to change than how you look, but even that is possible. Plastic surgery and airbrushing are commonplace. We recently had a family portrait taken, and we gladly paid the extra cost for retouching – “to soften lines, even skin tone, and remove blemishes.”

I read an interview this week with Mireille Guiliana, author of French Women Don’t Get Facelifts (click here to read the interview). Her one sentence description of this book is “Aging with Style and Attitude.”  There is something to be said about embracing your age and the natural changes that come with each stage of life. 

That's how the woman discussed in Proverbs chapter 31 lives; “She is clothed in strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come”(Prov. 31:25). Her confidence comes not from the clothes she wears, but from the Lord.  She is not worried about the future or what she look like, much less her laugh lines.

Though I want to be thinner, I want more to be confident in my standing as a daughter of the King.  I want to be like her.