And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Matthew 6:27-29 (ESV)
As I prepared Eliza’s Story for publication, one of my prayers was that God would be glorified and I would not. Humility is not one of my one of my strengths. Because I lived so much of my life working very hard to please people, when praise starts flooding in, I revert to a former way of thinking and begin to think I am better than I am. I now work just as hard deflecting the praise to Christ! So, I laughed on the day that the book became available on Amazon when evening fell and I was on the front porch cleaning up puppy poop. World famous author shovels dog poop, I thought. Not that I am world famous, but with two puppies there is a lot of poop! Another thing keeping me humble is my commitment to wear only seven articles of clothing in April. As outlined in the book, “7”, I started out the month reducing my wardrobe to two pairs of pants, three shirts, a blazer and one pair of shoes. With April starting out cool, I needed the blazer, but summer has arrived and it now hangs unneeded in my closet. My black jeans that I wear a minimum of four days a week developed a hole in the corner of the front pocket. I can only wear blue jeans to work one day a week, so those black pants have to be worn Monday-Thursday, and as such have been washed at least fifteen times already this month. My first impulse was to get mad at the quality of manufacturing. Those jeans, even when washed every day, should hold up better than that. Then, I rationalized that I could just change out for a different pair of black pants. But, what is the good of that? If I really signed on to wear only two pairs of pants for a month, then, I should wear only those two pairs of pants. The grey shirt is now picked and also worn. I could trade it out for a black shirt just like it. I tried that with the purple T-Shirt which I stained on the front, put it away and got out a white T-Shirt instead. I wore it once and it also became stained. Puppies again. All I have left now in that style is a yellow T-Shirt and I have never liked that color. So, four of the seven articles of clothing I have to wear are too hot, stained or torn. While the 7 experiment is supposed to teach me that I have too many clothes, instead, I am learning what it must be like to be poor and have to keep wearing clothes that no longer fit, are damaged or worn. What if I didn’t have another pair of black pants or more shirts? The thought of wearing a stained shirt to work troubles me. With twelve more days in April, I still have a lot to think about.
Imagine trying to get a job wearing those worn and stained clothes! That's one reason why, when I don't need something anymore (size too small or rarely, too big), I give it away to let it bless someone else who might need it! I have a limited wardrobe, but I do have what I need or have the ability to get what I need. I think that may be what this 7 project is trying to teach you.