October: Colossians 3- What are You Wearing This Month?

Colossians 3:12-14

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

(Katie) This is my verse for the month of October. I am planting myself in Colossians 3, praying that these 2 verses will be deeply rooted in my Spirit. If you feel led, I invite you to join me. 

A couple observations:

This verse begins by reminding us that we are chosen & dearly loved. I don't know about you, but I don't often start my day resting in the Truth that God has chosen me as His daughter and that I am dearly loved. What if we started our days declaring those truths over ourselves? How would your day be different? If I were to actually live out of place believing that I am in fact chosen, my insecurities of not fitting in or my fear of rejection loose their hold on me. If I enter my day believing that I am dearly loved, suddenly I am not affected by someone's bad attitude...afraid when my own brokenness rears its ugly head..and criticism does not completely throw me off balance. I am grounded in the Truth that I am dearly loved by God. If we really believe in the power of God's Word, then my question is why aren't we starting our day declaring these powerful words over ourselves? I am not strong enough to go through my entire day without being tempted to doubt my identity as God's dearly beloved, chosen daughter. Furthermore, I am learning that the more I am living out of my identity in Christ, the better able I am to call out that identity in others, even those people that irritate the heck out me. 

On Sunday, James and I were driving back from spending the weekend in MN. On our car ride home, James spoke some really hard truth to me about having a judgemental attitude. As I spent some time praying into what James called out in me, I realized he was right, but more importantly, the root of my issue was that I wasn't living out of my own place of belovedness. Usually, we project onto others how we treat ourselves, so naturally, when I looked internally, I was not surprised to see my own internal critic. 

I share this story because I think before we can choose to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, we have to be anchored in the Truth that we are dearly loved by God. These virtues are all fruits or bi-products of love. Furthermore, before we can extend those previous virtues listed to others, I challenge you to ask yourself  whether or not you show yourself patience? Are you gentle towards yourself? Are you compassionate towards yourself? My guess is that the areas that you most struggle to extend a virtue to yourself is probably the same thing that you most struggle to give to others. 

Finally, notice the verb clothe. Everyday, we choose what we want to wear. This passage commands us to clothe ourselves in the garments of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We have to choose each day to put them on. What are you choosing to wear each day? For me, I am quick to put on kindness, but its easy for me to forget patience. What about you?

I will continue to dialogue about my own observations from Colossians throughout the month of October. I hope you join me!