Article July 9, 2012 Issue

What should I wear?

Moira Doyle

First appeared as a web original on April 30, 2012

During celebrity awards shows, people interested in the fashion world wait expectantly to see what glamorous “looks” will be worn. They watch for the most beautiful presentation, according to the current fashionable ideal. Those hoping to measure up to this ideal focus a lot of energy and attention on achieving this goal.

As someone who has worked in the field of fashion design for many years, I’ve come to see that there is nothing wrong with looking well put together, but there is something wrong if striving to achieve an ideal upsets us or takes us away from putting God first in our lives. 

Is our “trendiness” important to God? Or does God look at the heart to see who’s “best dressed” in gratitude, loving her or his neighbor, doing good deeds? What kind of beauty lasts and blesses others, and what kind of spiritual “wardrobe” are we building for ourselves? Is it established where “moth and rust doth corrupt” (Matthew 6:19), or is it a heavenly wardrobe filled with selfless acts and a loving attitude toward others? 