Changing Paradigm

I’m a bit jazzed today. Why? Well, two or three weeks ago, I got out the four bins of smaller clothes I have stored in my attic (ridiculous, I know), thinking I might have something in there I can wear now. Unfortunately, I had not shrunk as much as I thought. In fact, I was a little embarrassed because I know I wore some of those clothes the last time I was around this weight. If they don’t fit now, they must not have fit then, yet I wore them anyway. Why do we do that? Why do we insist on not buying clothes that fit properly because they are a size or two bigger? I remember thinking, “I am NOT going to buy bigger clothes!” Plus I really hated how everything looked on me in the dressing room. Did I really think that no one noticed my pulled seams and muffin tops?

Anyway, I was bummed then (few weeks ago) because the clothes were supposed to show the progress I had made. Turns out my perspective was inaccurate.

Fast forward to last night. One of the women at work brought in a sack of clothes that were the same size as the ones stored in my attic. They were nice clothes, but I knew they would not fit. She said, “Girl, just take them home and try them on. You never know. I bet they do fit.” This woman was much thinner than me. It’s been my experience that smaller people can’t really comprehend larger sizes. But I took them home because I don’t know how to say no… and like I said, they were nice clothes.

When I got home my husband said, “Cute clothes! Try them on!” UGH! He was tripping on a caffeine high. Turns out, though…. THEY FIT!!!! And they looked good on me 🙂 (according to my husband.) So I got some of the clothes out of the attic again. They fit now :).

Once again my perspective was inaccurate. If I had operated only out of what I thought was true and how I saw things, I would have missed out on wearing some nice outfits available to me for the next couple of months, and instead kept wearing my baggy, big clothes. Not an earth-shattering revelation, but I got to thinking about how this translates into other areas of life.

An inaccurate perspective can keep us in situations that no longer fit us, or from seeing and experiencing new opportunities that are all around us. Our perspective forms mainly from our experiences and how we interpret them, which create deeply held beliefs which may be accurate…or not. For instance, if you grew up in an environment where you were often told you were an “accident”, you were a pest, or worthless, or untalented, or ugly, etc…you might tend to believe these messages and think of yourself as a nobody who just gets in everyone’s way. This perspective might be reinforced by the media glamorizing the “pretty people”. Then one day, hopefully, you hear the message that you weren’t an accident. You were created…for a purpose. And the One Who created you loves you and thought you were important enough to die for! That perspective brings hope and can change the course of a life! It’s a perspective we need to share!

What about you? What are some recent changes you’ve had in your perspective? Do you stubbornly where clothes after you’ve “grown out” of them?