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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

1/22

This morning I have been devouring a book by Anne Ortlund, Discplines of a Beautiful Woman. The chapter that I just finished talked about your looks. Now I must admit that I am not one to spend a lot of time on my clothing or my appearance. I guess this is because I used to be consumed by it and I am afraid of falling into that trap again--and I do not wish to go back there--EVER.

However, what Anne shared was very thought provoking, so I thought I would share it with you!

~Her first tip was this: when you become concious in the morning (meaning waking up fully), get decent. Before she has her devotions or spends time with God, she gets up and gets herself dressed and ready for the day.

She says
I look over the day's calendar, warm up a little and then stair climb (the fastest way to get in exercise) shower, and put on my face while I talk to God. Hair next, then clothes. Now I am ready for breakfast, meeting God, and all the day's agendas.
This little bit really struck me because I am one of those ladies who lounges around in her PJ's until 10 (after I have gotten everything done, but when I do this I feel so chaotic and out of sorts. I think I might really start implementing this and see what happens.

~The next thing that she talks about is the Proverbs 31 woman being a worthy woman. She stated that out of the 22 verses on the Proverbs 31 woman, only 1 of them is about how she looked. Anne had this to say:
Father, I want to give 1/22 of my time to making myself as outwardly beautiful as I can; and I want to give all the rest of my time, 21/22 of my life , to becoming wise, kind, godly, hard-working, and the rest.
~Anne then goes on to share about her clothing. This is what really got me to thinking, because I don't do this and I honestly should, because I AM TIRED of standing in front of my closet thinking I have NOTHING to wear! She shared that most of her morning hour is spent doing the looks thing--exercising, showering, doing her face and hair. She only spends five minutes getting dressed. Seriously? Five minutes?  This is why!
I have SO few clothes to choose from! I keep my closet stripped down to the following outfits: 4 dressy street length outfits, 4 long casual outfits, 6 day pants, 5 day dresses, 2 sandal dresses, 3 at-home outfits, 3 evening and party outfits.
There is NO way that I could use her clothing scenario because I don't have those types of clothes, but my problem is finding something that does not have a stain on it! EVERYTHING I own is stained, so I stand in the closet for twenty minutes trying to decided which item is less stained. I really need to work on getting my clothing updated--and an apron for the kitchen so my clothes will stop getting stained.

But her organization of her clothes AND her accessories is where I was truly drawn in. Listen to this:
Now when I buy a dress or an outfit, I don't just buy that alone. I make sure at the time I have everything I need--shoes, bag, jewelry, underthings, scarf--whatever. I stand before a full length mirror when it is new and check the whole outfit. I jot that complete outfit in my notebook. Everything is listed to complete the ensemble. Then it's ready to go. I never have to dawdle over, "Does this blouse go with this skirt?", "What beads would look good with this neckline?"  I know the whole outfit, and I can fall into it fast and get onto life's more important considerations.
I guess this just really floored me because I have never thought about doing a clothing notebook to be organized in that area.

So what do you think? Would you consider trying this? If you already do this, how does it work for you?




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