Christian girls looking cute...

My newest thing has been browsing lots of fashion blogs...which inspired this post.  (I'm a little too self-conscious to start one of my own, but I've decided I should take more pictures featuring me looking cute because most of my photos have me looking super un-photogenic and in ugly clothing...)

In junior high and high school, I subsisted on t-shirts and long jeans/overalls/the occasional vest.  Here are some pictures circa 2006 to prove my point:

epic fail in the foray to pair retro vest with random youth t-shirt

me in overalls...at least five years past the trend

Sometime during my college career, when I lived with two very fashion-minded roommates and when Mamacheng turned to me and said, "you  need to start dressing better, more your age." Thanks to the not-so-subtle push of my mother to get over my don't-care-how-i-look fashion style (which is really how I felt at the time, i was such a rebel), and the gorgeous examples of my fine sartorial-minded collegiate friends, I soon moved out of that, and into a more mature fashion sense.

I really realize that part of it was that I was going through a phase in my life where I had to confront the debilitating lack of self-worth and bubbling self-hatred seeping through my seemingly nonchalant facade.  Wearing nicer clothes, looking better and presentable, was a way to build my self-confidence.  If I didn't feel awesome about myself, hey, at least I looked pretty good today.  And people complimenting my wardrobe choice of the day fed my ego too.

But now...as a Christian woman, what is the correct philosophy to looking cute and wanting to be at your best?  My identity is in Christ, and He tells us to clothe ourselves with crazy things like dignity, strength, gentle and quiet spirit, submission to husbands, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  I can't buy that at the local Target!  I'm not really quiet, or kind, or gentle, humble, dignified... wow, really missing the mark there.

But...while those are the true things I'm aiming for...compassion, dignity, inner strength found in Jesus...I realize that the way I hold and carry myself is a reflection of what's within.  And the Word agrees too!  Can I find humor in the little craziness of life?  Can I hold my head up with confidence from being a lovely creation of the Creator?  and the way I dress is part of that as well.  Do I put enough effort to look like I care about myself, about taking care of myself, about not wasting what He's given me?

It's not a contest to be the cutest, although we often make it that way.  But for me, my clothes are a way of helping me regain some self-confidence that I seemed to have lost somewhere along the Fall.  And I hope that's true for girls too...not to be the next fashion trend, but to look and feel good because that's what they are on the inside as well.  The outside reflects the inner reality.

Next time though, if I'm tempted to tell a friend she looks cute, maybe I need remember that that's nowhere near the best compliment I can give her, and instead remind her that she is a beautiful person, made in the image of God.