Thursday, August 29, 2013

What am I wearing?

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Big Girl Pants are defined as: pants you wear when you know you need to step up. Something you are called to do, the right thing no matter how hard it is to do it. Often it is related to listening and obeying the Holy Spirit. (These pants have NOTHING to do with weight and/or age.)

Earlier this week I had to put on my Big Girl Pants, something that I know I need to do more often but is not something that I jump in head first to do. The main reason I do not long to zip up my Big Girl Pants is because it means the Holy Spirit is working on something in me. He is convicting me and calling me to live in a righteous way. Now who would not want to live in accordance with the Holy Spirit?! I do, but repeatedly it means my sinful nature has won over my will to naturally do want I know I need to do. Yes, often when putting on my Big Girl Pants it is because, “I do the things I do not want to do and don’t do the thing I know I need to do.”

While the Spirit has been working on me to really see I needed to step up and put on my Big Girl Pants I came to a conclusion. One reason I do not love my Big Girl Pants is because they feel as if they were made out of wool! You know what I mean; it is that lovely article of clothing that is just itchy to wear because it is made from wool. You find yourself itching and moving often while in this garment. It just does not feel like your comfy yoga pants or worn in linen pants. While this analogy is true it is also convicting. Let me explore more…..

We daily live in our yoga or linen pants, daily we sin and break the heart of our Savior! So when it is made known to our continuous attention that we are in the wrong and need to make a change we put on the uncomfortable itchy wool pants. We then feel something outside of our norm. But in reality as Christian Ladies we should be wearing our Big Girl Pants each and every day!

The Word calls us to live in a way that is holy and upright, Micah 6:8. We are told to forgive as well as to go and seek forgiveness, Matthew 26:28 and Mark 11:25. But somehow this is not what we do first. Our sinful nature is comfortable with holding on to things and making excuses for why “we” do not need to go and ask for forgiveness. Hence why we are so comfortable in our yoga pants rather than our Big Girl Pants.

Trust me…. my sinful nature would be happy as a clam to forever stay in my yoga pants and to not have to feel the discomfort of my wooly Big Girl Pants. But God is working in me. He is showing me that I need to wear my Big Girl Pants every day. No matter how hard it is I need to be willing to zip up my Big Girl Pants every day. The hope and prayer is that God will give me the grace and strength to not just say it but to DO IT! The strange thing is God is telling me over time that these itchy wooly pants will become comfortable! Living in accordance with His Word, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, does wonders in our lives and that is what makes these irritating difficult pants worth wearing!