As she stretched her arms wide out to her sides, she peered over at me with the reminder, “Now watch me, Mommy. Just watch me.”

With her head tilted towards the sky and her tutu arranged just perfectly, she began to twirl. Tentatively, her circle started slowly, but as she embraced the movement, her confidence built. She gazed down, knowing her sequined skirt swished with her,  and giggled, “Do I look pretty, Mommy? Do I?”

As I gathered her in my arms, and twirled her around, I melted into the eyes of my precious four year old, fashionista daughter.

“Sweet girl, you are beautiful on the outside, but you know that the beauty that matters most to God is on the inside.”

For years, I’ve prayed that my daughters and I would cultivate inner beauty. That we would radiate the love, joy and kindness that only the Lord can grant. We know that charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting, yet I ponder the wasy to reconcile our desire to don cute new boots, and ruby red lipstick with our love for Jesus?

My heart is set on being a woman who whole heartedly pursues the Lord, but as God’s girls, aren’t we instructed not to worry about what we wear?

I’ve dug into the scriptures on this topic, and I can’t get past the fact that we were created to enjoy beauty – all kinds of beauty. For me, there are times I enjoy seemingly trivial things like fashion and make up.

Scripture states we are not to worry about what we will wear, emphasis on “worry” or to become engrossed with it. If we are more concerned about the outside appearance, rather than our heart attitude, than we have the problem. Yet I think that we have the opportunity to let our outer appearance reflect our inner beauty, while having some fun with fashion, hair and make up at the same time.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made just exactly as we are, but do we convey that? Do we carry ourselves in such a way that others would believe that about us?

I’m a sweat shirt and sweat pants kind of girl. I’d be happy to just live in those every lazy day, but as I stay dressed in them, my attitude follows suit. Early in my marriage, I knew I needed to get out of my fashion comfort zone.

I’m sharing the rest of my thoughts about Fashion, Make Up, Jesus and Me over at (in)courage (a home for the heart of women), so continue here to finish the post.