Psalm 139:1 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Too much makeup! What are you hiding, is it the real you? Do you think that your appearance is not good enough, did God make a mistake with your appearance? You should of been more beautiful. Psalm 139:14 “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

As a young girl growing up I could never understand why it was always so important for us to dress so fancy to go to church. Long ago as a child you knew your place, a child did what they were told without questioning. So I’d look at the adults and their children knowing we all lived near each other and never had I ever seen them so nicely dress except on Sunday. Knowing Sunday is the day of the Lord I concluded that God was so important that we had to look our best for him.

As I grew older I realized not only did people dress nicely for church but going to school myself and siblings wore uniforms. Everyone was dressed the same in our navy blue and white for the girls and khaki and blue for the boys, yet we all were very much different because of our age. We all were dressed exactly the same and we looked great. What was in meaning of how we dress and why we did the way we do? I thought to myself as I began to mature, and watch and learn.

One thing that I’ve learned is that you can’t judge a book by its over and neither can you know a person truly know a person by the way they dress; outer appearance. We can dress up the outside but what’s truly going on in the inside no one but God knows. Thank God for as scriptures declares, he search the hearts and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve, Jeremiah 17:10. We can fool other people with our pretense to dress nicely and look good on the outside as if you have it all together, but not the Lord.

The dress code help us to acknowledge worked a person is in, what position they hold in society. We knew if you were a fireman, judge, police officer, nurse, doctor, rich famous, priest, lawyer, teacher. Every body look the same you can’t tell unless you meet them on the jobs in their uniforms. And even then, what you do for work doesn’t define who you are.

As I have grown I went through stages of learning to dress myself from being a tomboy to a lady. I’ve learned to dress conservatively because it was my dad who set the rule. When I first moved out and lived on my own all that church conservatively way of dressing was out the door and I dressed more like I should be on stage and had body guards like some famous pop stars. I was once in a  pageant where I first learn to dress like a lady and wore makeup and heels. To this day don’t like wearing cosmetics I like the natural look. It wasn’t until I went on a retreat that my dressing changed completely. I hadn’t worn skirts or short pants for almost twenty years. Wouldn’t be caught with anything above the knee. I looked like an old woman and it didn’t bother me. I had believed myself to be in the process of transitioning. I never felt so comfortable with myself as during that time. Everyone I knew saw the difference in me from my hair to my clothing everything had changed on the inside of me so my outside was affected. It was all discipline of the spirit. My spiritual mother and father told me to always have good morals, dress nicely, speak in the authority of the Lord, represent and if in anyway I shame them they’ll deny knowing me, so don’t call their name in association with me, lol. We all had a good laugh at that. I could remember my girlfriend I use to party with when we were younger, whom I haven’t seen in years I went to visit roommate looked at me with contempt because of the way I was dressed. I could of seen it in her eyes I was not what she had expected for a party girl. My girlfriend could dress so it was so unlikely because of the way I’d looked that we would even hang out together or went out to the clubs, so opposite.

I remember going on a trip with my husband and brother and we went to take a picture together and the photographer placed me in the back of everyone to hid me out the picture. Looking at the picture I did looked pretty ridiculous funny but it didn’t bother me at all I was so confident nothing bothered me. I had believed that the Lord wanted me to be in the world but not of it so I was stripped of pride, ego and the need for man approval and when I had mastered it. My greatest lesson was to learn to take pride in myself as a child of God and not only was it a great lesson but a difficult one, because God cannot be mocked I had to walk the walk and talk the talk in truly knowing who I am in the Lord and not fake it. I had to be my true and authentic self in Him, but what a price to pay. Fear got the best of me when for my love I received hate and persecution just like Christ.

I love being hidden especially looking ridiculous, then no one should have reason to hate on you, so I believed. So when I was told to start dressing according to the light within me people thought it’s because I am either trying to fit in, be something I am not, to look rich, lol. Nothing could be further from the truth, anything I ever worn didn’t costs me hundreds of dollars or was a name brand, even though it may look like it and as trying to fit in, the only “IN” I want to be is in His presence not the world’s. You don’t need to have lots of money to look good, the favor of the Lord on your life. You can be poor or rich and still look good. It’s favor, cause you could be naked and the light will still shine, then and only then they’ll know you’re blessed and highly favoured. It like saying you only require manners and good character because you’re rich and famous.

Joel 3:10 Let the weak say I am strong and the poor say I am rich. Your circumstances when in the Lord doesn’t stop you from shinning, you have everything you need and you just look and feel good, because of faith, hope and love which brings peace. When you walk the world can’t help but notice you. Ecclesiastes 10:6 Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones. Question is who truly is the rich? It is time to begin to trace who we really are in the Kingdom of God. Deuteronomy 8:18 The Lord your God who give you the ability to produce wealth. Don’t put your hope in your wealth.

My answer to why rich people dress like they are poor? Do they really, cause what is poor dressing to the rich, no name brands? Maybe they do behind closed doors, some have to spend half their days in front of a camera being famous and when they get a chance to be hidden, like myself they love it, as not to bring attention to themselves or clothing maybe the least on their desire as being rich. And as for poor people dressing like they are rich if they could afford to why not. Money doesn’t matter if it’s how you feel about yourself, your mindset. If you like to dress whether you’re rich or poor you’ll always continue. Being rich only allows you to more accessibility to to have in abundance. I have a friend that loves nice things she works hard so she can afford it. From her house, clothing everything and anything she has you’d think she’s rich. The only problem with her is if she was rich she would be traveling the world to shop. Today’s world wether rich or poor once you have faith and determination you can do anything there’s no discrimination.

There’s nothing wrong with whatever reason you like to dress and look good as long as you’re being true to God and yourself. What people assume is on them. The closer the relationship between you and God the more you shine in the world.