Purses...

 

I haven't gone back through the last 18 years or so of blogging to determine how many posts I have written about purses but I am betting there is more than one or two!  Purses (pocketbook if you prefer... an interesting side note the term pocketbook is used almost exclusively in the Eastern U.S. and even then, primarily in the South!) are very personal.  Much like shoes, I think they can say so much about personality; even more than clothing or jewelry. 

It is near impossible to buy a purse for someone  (now I am not talking about a cute, little, cocktail number or statement purse but rather those bags we turn to everyday)  unless you have specifically been shown what/which purse they love.  I believe this to be almost exactly the same in the buying shoes.  These items are not just decoration they have to work with our bodies.  The handles/straps have to fit "us" and our lives or even season of life.  I remember the years of not really carrying a purse but throwing my wallet into a diaper bag.  Now, I often forgo the purse and drop my wallet, keys, sunglasses into my computer bag and head out. Just like a shoe has to fit your foot to work in your daily life, so does the size, shape, and yes, even whether it has pockets, snaps, or zippers in a purse matter.  I can look back at my purse styles over the years, and although I have "tried on" different styles, I tend to navigate back to a basic style and fit... much like my basic black pumps that live in my closet as a necessity not an option  

In purses I am not brand loyal or even a brand snob.  If I see a purse I like, regardless of brand, and it fits...I will carry it.  My current bag is a lovely, pink patent, Kate Spade that I have carried in Summers past.  It is still in great shape, fits, and I love the pop of color... not to mention since it isn't current season no one else has the same bag!  One holiday season I carried a bag which had been the giftbag for a set of lotions but was made of red faux fur, trimmed in white faux fur with big, fuzzy, white pom-poms!  It worked and it fit.  It was festive, got lots of compliments, and no one was the wiser it wasn't even a purse.  I once had a friend who made delightful cocktail purses from wooden cigar boxes.  There is probably a great post about cocktail purses somewhere, I just haven't gotten around to it.

All this to say, that bag you haul around everyday says a lot about you.  If it is recyclable tote from the grocery or a Hermes Kelly bag, you are sharing more than you may realize!  Your purse is an extension of that arm it hangs from!

Coveted....

Shoes by Kate Spade

From my devotional today, "What will it take for you to come to that settled place where the central desire of your life is, "God, I just want more of you?"*   

Does anyone else wonder this for their own lives?  I do continually and sometimes I even seem to get a glimpse of that place...then I look away at something new, something shiny...something to distract me and catch the attention of my selfish desires.  This was the focus of my devotional today in a series on covetousness, which is funny to those who know me well because "coveted" is a very regular word in my vocabulary to describe all kinds of things, particularly a good parking spot.

I have learned a great deal about myself with this series especially about my  desire for the "right things at the wrong time."  I would never consider myself covetous in the sense that I see things others have and I desire them...but I do see things that I want for the sake of want.  I want it now, I want more than I might need, and want more than I need to fulfill God's plans for my life.  It seems that most of those "want things" are truly just a distraction to let myself stay focused on making myself number 1.  I use my wants to keep my focus off what I should focus on and that is contentment and the overwhelming blessings in my life and what I have.  Focusing on wanting a new pair of cute shoes is much easier than focusing on what God has called me to do...particularly if that calling might be a wee bit uncomfortable.  So, in the vain of transparency, I am here to say I struggle with covetousness but I so want to find that settled place where God is my central desire...

God granted them their request, but sent leanness into their lives.

Psalm 106:15 (ISV)

*The Word For You Today