Sisterhood of the traveling boutique

Recently I had a little party at my place for my beautiful single gal friends. I had a little suprize for them when they arrived that I affectionately called "Michele's Boutique". This idea was spun from a friend of mine who had lost weight and had clothes to give away that she no longer needed from sizes 4 to 14.

My friend knowing that I was on a weight loss journey myself asked if I would like the clothes she no longer needed to see if I could find some treasures to wear in them. I was excited because I had gotten into a 14 and am working on getting into a 12 and my friend has beautiful taste.

So when we were chatting we remembered my upcoming party and decided that it would be awesome to share these beautiful clothes with all our friends already coming over to the party. So we had a little women's dress up party in my room for them waiting when they arrived.

I was also inspired by my friends gift that I decided to go through my closet as well and added to the larger collection of sizes so that every woman of every size would find something to wear. My housemate also contributed and soon we had a room full of beautiful clothes from sizes 4 to 28.

I invited each women who came to come up to my room and visit "Michele's Boutique". It was amazing and felt a little like we were girls playing dress up finding treasures. There were 9 women who found something to be blessed by and then two bags left over to donate to our church.

It was a bit like the "sisterhood of the traveling pants" in that we all found something new to wear and a little magic in the moment of finding the treasures.

There was one thing though that made me a little sad as I saw the joy of my friends in treasures found. I had played a fly on the wall listening to the women as they looked in my boutique during the night.

It seemed like each of the women no matter what size they were wanted to be smaller, more petite or had some body part they felt made them imperfect or not beautiful. I couldn't believe it when I heard a size 6 friend share how she didn't want this one skirt because she felt her legs were just too chubby in the knees to show them.

"I would kill to be her size" I thought as I stared at her in disbelief. We all tried to convince this friend that she looked great in the skirt but I am not sure if we did. It made me think about what is truely beautiful. I had to ask myself the question... is my beauty defined by my dress size? If it is defined by that then at what size will I feel beautiful?

Women often take a look around and see other woman who are a few sizes smaller and think "I wish I were her size, then I would be beautiful". We all seem to think our size isn't beautiful. Seeing my friend's insecurity I found out that we all can't be right.

That size 6 gal who felt shy about showing her legs because she felt they weren't perfect in her eyes has no idea how beautiful she is in the eyes of the size 14 or 28. It seems that societys model of air brushed magazine cover women just pollutes us all into thinking we can't be beautiful right where we are at.

I have to admit in the end I do see the very petite women and wish I were that "hot" thing but really I have to see what really matters in the end. Jesus isn't going to care what dress size I wore in the end when I get to heaven. My journey of weight loss of now over 240 pounds is admirable for the discipline but God really cares about my heart.

I have to pray that my friends and I can find His eyes to see ourselves in when feeling like we will never be good enough. It's really about realizing that it is truely about who we are as confident servants of a loving God that matters most. It's not about our dress size.

So I would challenge you to have a boutique with your girlfriends and open it up to all sizes. God loves you right where your at. His grace covers us whether we are a size 4 or a size 38 which is what I was at my highest. He knows our hearts beauty is what He will see and value so work on making that part of you beautiful. I think that is what will make us shine.

Song in my head: Free to be me -Francesca Battiselli
Fruit: Love
Verse: Genesis 6:² the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.