Daily Devotional: Dress the Part

Read Colossians 3:12-14

Sports and fitness have been an important part of my life for many years. As a result, I am very competitive and I like to be viewed as strong, tough, powerful and driven. As a woman of fairly short stature, I think part of this has to do with the fact that I don’t want people to think they can mess with me. I find that a bit humorous as I write that, because I cannot recall any physical confrontation – or actually any serious confrontation – that I’ve experienced (well, there were a few situations on the elementary school playground, but that was quite a while ago).

I also have been a Christian for the great majority of my life. I haven’t always looked the part, though. Those college years were less than impressive when it comes to dressing the part of a Christian. No, I don’t mean literally dressing the part. I’m thinking of these verses in Colossians that tell Christians to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and above all, love.  I think by clothing ourselves with these qualities, we are displaying them in an obvious, yet also genuine, way. They are not things to be taken on and off at whim, but rather, they are best to be a permanent part of our wardrobe. This is not common attire, so people are likely to take notice and wonder what makes you so different from others around you.

Being kind, humble, gentle, patient and loving does not make you weak. In fact, it takes great strength to maintain those qualities in a world that doesn’t openly value them. These are virtues, though, that change lives. If you really want to impact the people around you and be a difference maker, this is just what you need to do to dress the part.