It is an early Sunday morning (at least earlier than I am used to) and after a long night of tumbling back and forth, I actually woke up feeling quite refreshed. As I yawned and rubbed my eyes open I checked my phone for the time. I was up before my second alarm! I told myself that getting up this early to go buy some Lilly Pulitzer dresses at Target was totally worth it. My sister and I met in the hallway. She had on a cute skirt and top, thinking that we were going to church immediately afterwards, and I had on my yoga pants and a long zip up sweater that used to belong to my grandpa before he passed away. We stared at each other and laughed, but then quickly became serious because we were ready for our first early morning shopping experience.
As we stepped outside, the sun kissed us and the dewy, warm air seemed to give us a gentle hug. We buckled in our seat belts (because safety first!) and raced off to our nearest Target (only 5 minutes away...ha!). As we approached our destination, we saw the long line full of vineyard vine shirts and nike shorts. Once we were in line we realized that we had officially entered the preppy world. See, the point of this line was to get to one rack full of Lilly Pulitzer clothing items. ONE rack. Pure madness. Time ticked by slowly, but surely enough 8am reached us. The target employee opened the door and each girl was admitted one by one. My sister and I held hands and booked it to the rack once we got through those doors. Our hands were pulled apart and we went our separate ways to try and grab the dresses that we wanted. In literal seconds the rack was empty. I somehow managed to grab a dress so we met up and scurried to the dressing room to see if it would fit me.
Blah. All my excitement was gone in an instant. With a dress one size too big and a big leafy green print I looked like a tree. I decided why waste my money on something that I didn't even like anyways. I tried looking for someone that would want to trade their shift dress with my leafy dress, but of course - no. However, I went to an area of the dressing room where a crowd of girls had gathered..waiting for someone to give up their dress that was either too small or too big. So I asked if anyone wanted the dress and immediately someone took it from my hands. Aaaannnddd that was the end of my 15 minute, way-too-early shopping experience.
However, even though I didn't get a dress out of the whole experience, it did get me thinking. Humans long for something that will satisfy them, including me, but we're looking in all the wrong places. We are looking for material goods to satisfy us. Our phones entertain us 24/7. We have hulu, netflix, youtube, etc. And honestly, we just grab whatever comes our way or whatever it is that we can find. Yeah of course you'll be happy to score a sweet deal on a Lilly Pulitzer dress!!!!! But is that really going to satisfy your inner need for something great? Probably not. Besides...Things like dresses (well..clothes in general), phones, wifi...Yeah those things tear, break, disconnect when the wind is too strong. What would be cool is if our closets came with a never ending supply of Lilly shift dresses! Then we wouldn't even have to consider going to the store!
There were SO many sad faces! All these girls that had waited in line, but not all the girls got something. I felt so bad for the girls that didn't get anything. Looking into their faces was like looking into a long, empty tunnel. No light at the end.
I say all of this to get to this point. Dear friend that's reading this, you see, I have an eternal hope. I believe in a love that exists for everyone!! I believe that there is hope and light for all. How selfish would it be of me if I didn't share that with you? My life was pretty messed up on the inside a couple of years ago. Again, I'm not perfect..AT ALL!!! But I'm constantly changing. Two years ago I decided to read my Bible more. I wanted to find out more about Jesus and actually have a relationship with Him. Not just go to church and sing amen. That's not what Christianity is all about. It's about realizing that you are pretty much always going to be the opposite of perfect, but knowing that God, your creator, loves you so so so much that He wants to call you His child. He wants to give you life and a life in abundance. Jesus is so much more than going to church! Jesus gives us incomprehensible grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
So I leave that with you today. I want you to know that regardless of whether or not you have a Lilly Pulitzer dress, you are loved.
As we stepped outside, the sun kissed us and the dewy, warm air seemed to give us a gentle hug. We buckled in our seat belts (because safety first!) and raced off to our nearest Target (only 5 minutes away...ha!). As we approached our destination, we saw the long line full of vineyard vine shirts and nike shorts. Once we were in line we realized that we had officially entered the preppy world. See, the point of this line was to get to one rack full of Lilly Pulitzer clothing items. ONE rack. Pure madness. Time ticked by slowly, but surely enough 8am reached us. The target employee opened the door and each girl was admitted one by one. My sister and I held hands and booked it to the rack once we got through those doors. Our hands were pulled apart and we went our separate ways to try and grab the dresses that we wanted. In literal seconds the rack was empty. I somehow managed to grab a dress so we met up and scurried to the dressing room to see if it would fit me.
Blah. All my excitement was gone in an instant. With a dress one size too big and a big leafy green print I looked like a tree. I decided why waste my money on something that I didn't even like anyways. I tried looking for someone that would want to trade their shift dress with my leafy dress, but of course - no. However, I went to an area of the dressing room where a crowd of girls had gathered..waiting for someone to give up their dress that was either too small or too big. So I asked if anyone wanted the dress and immediately someone took it from my hands. Aaaannnddd that was the end of my 15 minute, way-too-early shopping experience.
However, even though I didn't get a dress out of the whole experience, it did get me thinking. Humans long for something that will satisfy them, including me, but we're looking in all the wrong places. We are looking for material goods to satisfy us. Our phones entertain us 24/7. We have hulu, netflix, youtube, etc. And honestly, we just grab whatever comes our way or whatever it is that we can find. Yeah of course you'll be happy to score a sweet deal on a Lilly Pulitzer dress!!!!! But is that really going to satisfy your inner need for something great? Probably not. Besides...Things like dresses (well..clothes in general), phones, wifi...Yeah those things tear, break, disconnect when the wind is too strong. What would be cool is if our closets came with a never ending supply of Lilly shift dresses! Then we wouldn't even have to consider going to the store!
There were SO many sad faces! All these girls that had waited in line, but not all the girls got something. I felt so bad for the girls that didn't get anything. Looking into their faces was like looking into a long, empty tunnel. No light at the end.
I say all of this to get to this point. Dear friend that's reading this, you see, I have an eternal hope. I believe in a love that exists for everyone!! I believe that there is hope and light for all. How selfish would it be of me if I didn't share that with you? My life was pretty messed up on the inside a couple of years ago. Again, I'm not perfect..AT ALL!!! But I'm constantly changing. Two years ago I decided to read my Bible more. I wanted to find out more about Jesus and actually have a relationship with Him. Not just go to church and sing amen. That's not what Christianity is all about. It's about realizing that you are pretty much always going to be the opposite of perfect, but knowing that God, your creator, loves you so so so much that He wants to call you His child. He wants to give you life and a life in abundance. Jesus is so much more than going to church! Jesus gives us incomprehensible grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
So I leave that with you today. I want you to know that regardless of whether or not you have a Lilly Pulitzer dress, you are loved.
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Jesus Christ will be given new life.
#lillyfortarget
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