How are you dressed today?

Today I am praising God for the beautiful weather. It is a gorgeous sunny day with a lovely breeze. My plan was to get some washing done. Then came a lesson from The Lord in my washday.

We all give a fair bit of attention to our clothes. After all, we pay good money for them or have taken our time to measure, cut and sew them.
Today my verse was Colossians 3.12-14
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. (The Message)

"Put on" is an instruction to do something on purpose. To make a decision ahead of time on how we are going to act. God is instructing us to on purpose put on mercy, put on peace, gentle ways, humility and most of all put on love. I have to do these things on purpose- giving them my attention.

Every morning I get dressed. When I get dressed- I give my attention to making sure that my clothes match, that the colours and textures go together. I check that the clothes that I am putting on are clean, properly fitting and appropriate. I also take care when I select the clothes by giving consideration to outside influences, such as the weather, to make sure I am protected. The conditions that I wear my clothes in will effect what I put on that day. If the day is very cold and rainy I put on more clothes.

We know that we live in an age of wickedness, just take a look at any news stand or news bulletin. The Word tells us: Matt 24.. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.

We know we live in dark times. We don’t even have to look globally. We just have to drive to our local store: on the way we see road rage, rude attitudes of people, swearing, lazy attitudes of thoughtless people, some days these people are even ourselves!- I am ashamed to say just how mad I can get when someone cuts me off or the cashier is talking on the phone when I’m in a hurry to pay and get going, my attitude alone is evidence enough!

It is really important that we take care and attention in our spiritual dressing each morning before we start our day and prepare to meet its pressures and headaches and frustrations. We need to accurately assess the climate in which we live. We know that in our daily lives the enemy makes it his business to mess around stealing our peace and joy. John 10.10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; Every day we see evidence of this in anger, frustrations and resentments invading our homes, our marriages, our attitudes. We need to purposefully dress for these conditions so that we are well protected and prepared.

I take care doing my buttons & tying my shoe laces, I usually check in the mirror that I haven’t missed anything and that I am ready for the day. In the same way I need to check my preparation against the Word of God- held up against the Scriptures- does the “end result” of how I appear reflect Godliness. Am I showing and living in an attitude of love, peace and joy? Am I walking in love? I may want to show off my beautiful designer jacket but if it has a big stain on it I will have to do some serious work to get it presentable again. So it is with my life, when I fall into sins such as pride, selfishness and anger, I am showing a stain which is an area that needs some pre- treating to get it cleaned and right. If I simply ignore my bad attitudes they will set and remain spoiling the whole garment.

Some days I get up and get dressed quickly and don’t get it right and my dear 13yo says "lovingly" that I don’t match- I haven’t done a good job of preparing and I need to adjust my choices to be well dressed. Similarly some days my circumstances tell me that I haven’t done a good job of getting spiritually dressed too. I don’t put on enough "mercy"- I scream at my kids when they are clumsy or slow. I get frustrated if I am waiting and the checkout line is long. I need to take time in those times to make the effort to go back and put on "mercy" on purpose. I can be self controlled with my kids. I can correct them gently and lovingly without yelling- I need to prepare my heart to do that EVERY day. It is not an easy thing for an over tired, busy mum to be gentle. I find it is not a character quality that I naturally have. I need to spend extra time giving attention to this area.

A considerable part of my chore time as a mum is spent on clothes. We make such preparations for getting dressed even before the actual act of getting dressed begins-we sort, spray (treating spots and stains that left unchecked would ruin a garment) we wash, dry, iron and fold clothes, so that the family has all that we need to get dressed each morning. I really want to make a priority to spend time IN each day soaking in the Word. Not to grab a hurried minutes but to really treasure the time as a priority.
I wonder what my days would look like if I spend time- even 5 minutes every morning- getting spiritually dressed on purpose, before I start my day.

How are you dressed today?