Hello Lovelies. I hope January is treating you well. I am so excited to share this post with you for two reasons. I get to share with you one of my favorite shops that I found out about on Instagram. I also get to share a slice of my beauty room. I wanted to give you a look at it before this painting makes its way to a new home very soon. Hopefully I can get a home tour post going soon as well. It has been requested. I hope you enjoy. Oh yea, I also get to show off my panda palace back yard again. During the afternoon, the sun is so pretty as it peaks through.
Outfit details: Top: Dear Heart Designs, Sarah-ndipity Necklace: Custom Dear Heart Designs, Layering Cami: Similar Here , Pants: Similar Here and Here , Shoes: No longer available.
Hair Details: I used a 1/2 inch curling iron to tame and define random pieces of my already naturally curly hair. Kenra Dry Thickening Spray, Big Sexy Hair Volumizing Hairspray. I then backcomb random strands of hair and teased the roots. The end result looks something like a lion, and I love it.
Let's talk about this top first. It is from Nichole at Dear Heart Designs. If you have never checked her out, you totally should. I can not speak enough kind words about her. She is so sweet and so willing to help and she has been such a blessing to me. Even at Christmas she went out of her way to get me a necklace shipped for a gift. That is the thing I love most about buying from "small shops". You are working with real people who most of the time are very passionate about their work. I love to help support small businesses because it helps people like you and me make a living. Again, I can not say enough nice words about Nichole. She is amazing and so hard working.
Not perfect, just forgiven.
When I saw this shirt, I knew I had to have it. (I originally wanted black, but she sold out of those so fast.) The words printed on this shirt hit so close to my heart. I am not perfect. I am just forgiven. I think as a christian it can be so hard some times to remember these words. I know there have been several times when I just feel so down about myself when I fail at attaining perfectionism in the way that I present myself to others.
I think that in this day and age, when you label yourself a follower of Christ, you automatically become a target to "policing" people; people that cannot wait to tell you that you are being a hypocrite. People who do not believe or people who are confused and on the fence about the Lord always tend to look for ways that they can say "Ha, You aren't perfect." or "You messed up. You're a loser, ha ha ha." They seem to be on the lookout for you to mess up just so they can point their finger and laugh at you for failing. In a way, I feel that people even hold anyone who claims to follow the Lord to a higher character standard than the Lord does. Honestly, people can be like vultures about it.
I do not think that non-believers realize that most people do not claim to be perfect. I think that is one of the biggest misconceptions of being a Christ follower. Who on earth would ever what anything to do with the Lord if He unsympathetically held us to perfection with no chance of forgiveness? When given the chance, loving the Lord is in our nature. Perfectionism is not. The only perfect individual died because we fell short of perfection by a long shot. That perfect individual was Jesus Christ.
When I think about it, it is impossible to obtain perfect for every single person. If you could, what a tragically boring world we would live in. You can never be perfect for everyone so why put that pressure on yourself? How freeing is that? The awesome thing is that we are not here to be perfect for other people. We are here to be kind to others and to love others as ourselves. We are here to spread God's word and teach of his love. We can only try our best knowing that at the end of the day HE still loves us through our imperfections. His opinion is all that matters anyways.
Not many people want to hear me talk about God or hear about how He has changed my life in ways that I never thought possible. To be honest following Christ is not the "cool" thing to do anymore according to the world. That does not fit into our world. "Perfect" to the world means lack of real knowledge, how well you handle being a "girl-boss" and "girl-power", superficial everything, Kardashian features, musical stars, and ladies being "um flawless". Well I am here to tell you that no one is without flaws and being all of those things will not make you happy. I am not the world's standard of perfect nor am the perfect example of a christian. I try my best and that is all I can do. I will continue to spread his light to the best of abilities, because THAT is "cool" to me. To me, that is the perfect thing to do.
To whomever may be reading this, I want you to know a few things. I like you as perfectly-imperfect as you are but more importantly, the Lord likes you that way too. The Lord has a thing about using the most imperfect people in some of the most important ways. I hope you will keep these thoughts with you throughout this day and this new year. We are not perfect, but we are forgiven. That is what matters.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and I hope you have a wonderfully imperfect-perfect week. Also do not forget to check out what Dear Heart Designs is all about.
Love Always,
Sarah Kate