Most of my wardrobe comes from my sisters. Pieces that they don't want, I like to pick up. Something a little worn doesn't bother me because I love layering. It's one of the reasons I love cooler months. An old green dress that used to belong to my sister layered with a brown cardigan that I got from a friend and an over-sized brown scarf that my mom brought back for me from a trip to Europe. Add my ridiculously cheap tall brown boots and voila, a lovely autumn outfit. This really is my absolute favorite outfit right now. Or some take on it that also involves a gifted dress, cardigan, and scarf.
I hope you noted the theme there. I don't buy clothes. Not often anyway. If I do buy clothes it's from the super marked down clearance aisle. (Jeans are my exception to this rule. I do pay a little more for a good pair of jeans that fit really well. But I justify it by wearing the life out of them.) It's not that I don't like shopping for new clothes. What girl doesn't? It's just that I can't. We live on a strict budget that doesn't allow for a lot of new clothes. We live on thrift finds and hand me downs. I'm alright with that. We aren't running around with holes in our clothes or summer clothes in the winter. (Unless of course we choose to wear holes in our clothes or summer clothes in winter. Some days we like to go Abercrombie.) My children have warm coats and shoes that fit. Our wardrobes are full of nice clothes that fit current styles. The clothes threaten to spill from the chest of drawers some days. All of this means even more as we start to move into the winter months because I know that there are other children, who live in the same financial situation that we do, who don't have warm coats or shoes that fit. We are blessed. Like the food yesterday, we are well provided for. We always have been. That's not something that I take for granted.
"why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these...Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'what shall we eat?' or 'what shall we drink?' or 'what shall we wear?'...your heavenly Father knows that you need them all." - Matthew 6:28-32
We have everything we need. Even in times when the bank account is in the negative, we always have food, shelter, and clothing. Every time I say that I'm reminded on this one time, right after the middle sprite was born, when Steven was looking for a job but couldn't find one. We had a three year old, a newborn, and no income. It was a desperate time. But then the gift cards started coming in. We started getting late baby gifts in the mail containing Wal-Mart gift cards. It was always enough to buy groceries and diapers for a couple of weeks. And just as one card ran out, another would come in the mail. This continued until Steven got a job. Then the gift cards stopped. The other day I got a gift card in the mail. It came right after I had paid bills and realized we were going to finish the month close to zero. Like I said, we are well provided for.
We may not have much but we have enough.
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