Chapter 2: Clothing

To be honest, I approached this chapter thinking that fasting from clothing might not really be important for me.   I do like a cute outfit, but I am definitely not a "fashionista".  I work with preschool students, so at work I wear jeans most days, and I regularly expect that I will get paint, Play-doh or some type of runny nose goop on my clothing at least once per week.  I don't consider myself a frequent clothing shopper.  A lot of the items I see staring back at me from my closet are things other people accidentally shrunk and just passed down (one of the benefits of being short).  I figured I was doing pretty well in this area.

Then Jen said she had 327 articles of clothing (including accessories, shoes, etc) and challenged us to count our own stock.  I didn't count the pantry items during the food chapter last month, so I decided to go ahead and start counting clothing, sure that I wouldn't come near the number she had.  Then I started counting.  I was pretty surprised at how much was actually in there!  It was a good wake up call for me, and encouraged me to do two things.  The first is really consider what I NEED before I buy (instead of just what I WANT) and the second is that it is time to clean that closet out and donate some clothing to charity.  My husband is on board with that idea and plans to clean his side out too (which ironically has more than mine).

I was excited when I started reading about about Day 9 - when Jen's friend described her experience at the Austin Women's Clothing Swap.  What a great idea!  The Women's Ministry happens to be sponsoring a modified version of this at the nZone on April 27th.  We are calling it "Bring the Bling" and we hope to have a fantastic accessories swap that night, so that ladies can go home with some great "new" items for free.  It's basically recycling at its best.

So the question is,  where will this chapter take you?  What kind of fasting, if any, can you do in the area of clothing?  Do you think this is an important area for you?  What does the bible say about clothing?  Check out the Message version of Matthew 6:28-33 for some insight.  And have a great week!

Matthew 6:28-33

The Message (MSG)

^27-29 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
^30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.