Friday, April 28, 2017

My Embarrassing Dress



There is a time for everything and a season for everything under heaven… a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. (Ecclesiastes 3: 1,4 NIV)

            The dress went over my head and snuggled too tightly around me middle. Unfortunately, I hadn’t tried it on before leaving to spend the night at my Chris and Anne’s home.

            “Does it look too tight?” I asked my teenaged granddaughter, Ashlyn.

            Her sweet disposition wouldn’t allow her to say, “Yes.” However, her eyes did.

            “I brought pants I could wear instead but not a top for church.”

            “You could look through mine,” she said.

            If I could hold my stomach in for a couple of hours, I could make it. I knew I had gained some weight but didn’t think the dress would grasp me so tightly. Normally, the draped center camouflaged bulges.

            At church hundreds of people passed me and many stopped to talk as I greeted them before and after the service. Occasionally, I remembered to suck it in.

            As I left church with Chris and his family, Ashlyn stepped behind me.

            “Grandma, your dress is lower in the back,” she said as she looked at the front neckline too.

            My hand went to the front of my dress and grasped a tag. I couldn’t have.

            One look at Ashlyn’s shaking head confirmed my suspicion. “Grandma, you wore your dress backwards.”

            “Maybe no one noticed.”

            “You were a greeter with the Connection team.”

            She was right. Even though no one said anything, there could have been hundreds of people who wondered why my dress was backwards.

            I burst into laughter. She cringed and then laughed too.

            Advancing age seems to bring more goofs but also less concern about how people see me. I don’t take myself as seriously as I used to.

            After years of tears, laughs now come. Dancing joined my grief. If my incident makes someone laugh, I am glad because it continues to amuse me.


Dear Lord, thank you for the seasons of life and changing times. Help me to laugh at my goofs and go on. Amen

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