The Dress

I'm currently going through a wonderful discipleship program at our church called Partners. Last week, my Partners' mentor and I discussed the chapter on the Holy Spirit. We committed to working harder at listening for the Holy Spirit's prompts in our lives. Later that week, God taught me a wonderful lesson about really listening to Him with a right heart.

On Saturday, my husband and I were to attend a swanky wedding on the beach in La Jolla, and I knew I didn't have anything in my closet that would be appropriate to wear. I don't enjoy shopping for clothes, so I dreaded having to go out and buy something.

On Friday, I asked God to please make me aware of His voice and lead me to the right store and the right dress for me. I have to admit that I didn't really believe He would do so - but I certainly hoped He would. I, frankly, just wanted Him to quickly solve this problem for me so I could get on with my day.

Even in the midst of my concern that I wouldn't find a dress, I resolved to trust Him with my whole heart (Proverbs 3:5-6). Shopping tends to cause me a lot of anxiety and I really did desire to stay calm so I could listen for His promptings.

I started Friday morning by spending between 30 - 60 minutes each at five different stores. Although I found one dress that could work, it was more than I wanted to spend and this dress made my calves look enormous - not the look I wanted. I put that dress on hold and continued my quest. As I exited each store, my ability to stay calm and continue to trust God diminished.

At lunch time, I wearily made my way home. I was certain that fat-calf-dress was going to have to do. Tired and discouraged, I made myself some lunch and felt God prompt me to head over to a mall that I don't often frequent. I kind of ignored this prompt for about an hour - I just didn't want to go out there again. After all, I thought I'd been listening for His voice, was determined to trust Him with my whole heart (Proverbs 3:5-6), and had become discouraged by all the time this was taking. Didn't God know I wanted to solve this quickly!?!

I arrived at the mall, hot and tired. Immediately, I remembered a section of dresses that I had seen there a few weeks ago. One dress in particular had caught my eye, but at the time I had no need for such an item so I passed it by. I wondered if the dress would still be there?

When I arrived at the dress section, I was surprised to see the dress still displayed for sale. I tried to quell my excitement as I searched the rack for one in my size. After all, how many times have I seen something cute while shopping only to determine the price was too high or the store no longer had any in my size.

This time the price looked about right, but the size was an issue. They had ten dresses in size 16 and one in size 8. I just knew neither size would work and spent the next 15 minutes scouring the store for a misplaced dress in my size. The thought kept coming to me that I should just try the size 8, but I ignored the thought. There is nothing worse than being excited about an item only to have it be a disaster in the dressing room.

Finally, I realized I had no choice but to try on the size 8. There were no other dresses that even slightly appealed to me, and the store didn't have any other sizes of the dress.

And you know what? The size 8 fit. It was like this dress was made for me. I stood in the dressing room for quite a while, thinking I was delusional. There was no way this dress should have fit, but it did.

I was immediately floored by God's graciousness. He had gently taught me a lesson and allowed me to get a beautiful dress for a great price. What was the lesson? God wants me to listen to Him, but He wants me to listen with a right heart.

I thought my heart was right from the beginning, but I was full of selfish motives. I wanted to involve God in my dress shopping because I had hoped He would make it less painful for me. But really, I wasn't interested in Him being my God, I wanted Him to be my personal shopper.

God loves His children and wants to give good things to us (Matthew 7:9-11). But, He demands a rightful place in our lives. In the Ten Commandments, we are told that we are to have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20). My "other gods" included wanting what I wanted, wanting not to spend excessive time shopping, wanting Him to hurry up and serve me.

God knew my heart wasn't completely pure, but He knew I wanted it to be. I think He brought me to the end of my own ideas of where to shop and the end of my own physical strength to show how His ways and thoughts are higher than mine (Isaiah 55:9) - He is GOD. And, He can be trusted (Proverbs 3:5-6).

If I will lay down my own plans and desires and allow Him to truly reign in my life, He will respond in ways much greater than I can imagine (Ephesians 3:20) - like finding me a beautiful dress and teaching me a little about listening to Him with a pure heart.

Heavenly Father,
Thank You for allowing us to see Your goodness in the land of the living. Please give us ears to hear Your promptings in our lives and help us always check those promptings against the truth of your Scripture, knowing You would never contradict Your word, The Bible. Thank You for speaking to us.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen

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