Starting With the Man in the Mirror

A friend and I were chatting this morning about the pink blouse I was wearing.

Friend: "Jay would flip if he saw you in that top!" (Yes, I do talk about you guys to offline people :P)

Me: *winces* "Yeah..." And my thoughts sail back to the time I spent with the Lauser family and how...simple and innocent and safe it felt. And how something inside looked at their contentedness and ease in their style of clothing, and how I envied it. And also, how their clothing made them stand out as a simple, happy and obvious witness for Christ.

Then ensues the conversation about how it wasn't about the amount of skin you showed, but the attitude of the heart, and that we can't really help the clothing that's issued us by today's society...

Yeah, that's all right, but there's something more...

I by no means dress immodestly, but some of my clothes could call for a higher standard - although I also by no means ever intend to go burqa crazy. But the girl who used to jeer at the loose and high necked, almost-ankle/ankle length clothing (from the girl who also used to wear them until 16/17 years old) seems to be changing once more. I'm not there yet, but I know it's coming.

I've tried to write this second part for a while, but not sure how to. My music is going to change too. For a while, now, I've not been listening to many musicals, and not too many non-Christian songs.
I love musicals, and I love The Fast Food Song. But I've been thinking...the reason I used to object to non-Christian music was the fact that most of it was rock/jazz/pop etc, and that the lyrics weren't glorifying to God.
The style of music has zoomed out of the window with the advent of CCM in my life, and the lyrics? Well, I was listening to musicals...happy songs...that never mentioned God...

I'm sounding legalistic, I know I am. But I'm not CONDEMNING them. I'm just saying, at some point in the near future they aren't going to be right for me - and I don't know if that conviction will always be there or not.

There's a couple of songs it's going to be pretty hard to give up - musicals, Hairspray and oh boy definitely, the Sound of Music and The King and I...Memory...Tomorrow...Ever Ever After.
Non-Christian songs? Well, they've been going down the quickest, but I'm still listening to "Man in the Mirror", "Just Haven't Met You Yet", "Just the Way You Are" and one other that I can't remember for the life of me. :P

I'm hesitating changing because I know the reactions from most people around me...and also because I'm not quite ready to give it up yet. But anyway, there's a quick update from me and some of the things that are changing in my shapeshifter life.



Yeah, I'm gonna start with the man in the mirror and ask him to change his ways. God changes us, then changes the family, then changes the church, and THEN will the church be able to reach the world - when the church and we stop concentrating on being as much like the world as we can be, and start fleeing the grey area for the pure white.

"And no message could've been any clearer, if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make the change."


God bless!

In Christ,
Jane

Comments

  1. deliciatekernelSunday, November 06, 2011 1:35:00 pm

    * smiles * Even though I should be used to it, I guess, it still kinda surprises me when someone mentions something they said about me in real life. :D

    God wants more than our best: He wants everything we have and everything He's given us and everything He can give us. He wants us live and die for Him in every breath.

    Keep it up. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Outta 'Arm's Way

Image
It's painful. And it's sore. It's so sore I spend washtime dabbing water on portions of my skin because if I shower properly, I end up crying with pain. It's inherited genetically. I remember Daddy telling me his started when he was 19. It went all over his entire body - including his face. He had the wet kind - weeping, they call it - on his face. He had to go to work every day like that. And he said he felt disgusting, like a leper. Until he took aloe vera tablets, which reduced his eczema to some kind of controllable level. It started when I was a kid. Behind the backs of my knees and in the crooks of my arms. Then it faded until I only had it occasionally on the elbow of my right arm. Last year, it flared up again. REALLY bad. On my arms. Then I went to America. It was bad when I arrived. Came back a little in Oregon due to the dryness of the air. But otherwise, it was cleared. I forgot I had ever had eczema. Then I came home. And started work. ...
Read more

My Battle with Modesty

WARNING: I'm not sure about the appropriateness of this for guys...so if you think it's bad, stop reading. Okay? I read Jay Lauser’s excellent post on A New Kind of Modesty (which you really, really, really should read, though I won’t post it up seven times like my big sister C’rissie :P) yesterday, and thought I would like to blog my struggle and weakness in that area for...encouragement? General opinion? Not quite sure, although it certainly wasn’t out of self consideration. :P Then I read C’rissie’s post connected with Jay’s, A Rant on Modesty ;), which you can read here . And decided that I felt too embarrassed after reading that, because they were both so good and covered the ground enough, so I wouldn’t. Well, this morning, I changed my mind. (Although after rereading it again just, with all the comments, I feel quite small about posting this...*hits send before I rethink*) It’s not too often that I gain a victory over my worldliness to be happy in the clothes I’m weari...
Read more

Best Time of My Life ~ Now

You know those points in life where things just hit you? It came to me as I was washing up in the kitchen, snuggled in my fluffy grey dressing gown, the electric light off and the warm glow of the sunset fading in through the window, Michael Card's Celtic music playing in the background. I'm 21. And finally life seems to be coming, in a way. So many plans and hopes and dreams buzzing through my head, so much that is likely to and so easily can be smashed. "I'm fine on my own," I said aloud, laughed, looked up and sighed. These moments where I'm the only one in the house and can talk out loud on everything with God - cause He already knows it - and know the intimate closeness of Him in my spirit. "No, I'm not. But I'm okay with that. You're here, and You'll be with me until the time is right." Marriages are sprouting up all around me as my friends begin to pair off, and the middle-aged-21 crisis struck me. Not so much because...
Read more