Does it line up?

Proof that Nanny still has a strong influence in my life.

Do you sew? I am doing well to sew a button back on a shirt, but my grandmother, we called Nanny, was a phenomenal seamstress, among other things.

Nanny and I loved to shop together. I remember her taking me to the Limited, which was the store to shop back in the day. She had me choose something I liked. I picked out the most beautiful skirt. It was the trend of the day. I thought she was going to buy it for me and I was very excited. She looked it over, turn it inside out and then left the store without saying anything else about it.

I was so upset. I couldn’t figure out why she asked me to choose something I really liked if she wasn’t going to buy it for me. The next day when I came home from school I had three skirts just like it on my bed in different fabrics. She was amazing, in so many ways.

I’ve thought a lot about Nanny this week. She would have turned 98 on Tuesday. She was my best friend in the whole world. I miss her so. She taught me so much about life. One of her many life lessons came in the form of a fashion lesson. She was the original fashionista. Every time she walked out of the house she looked like she stepped out of a magazine. She had scarves, jewelry, handbags, and shoes that matched every outfit. She said,

You never buy anything when the stripes don’t line up at the seams. It means it’s cheap. If it was quality, the seamstress would have taken the time to get the stripes straight. Quality takes time.”

To this day I cannot buy a striped shirt, skirt or pair of pants that doesn’t have the stripes lined up. I just can’t do it.

As I grew older, I began to realize the lessons Nanny taught me through the years were both literal and figurative. When people’s actions and words don’t line up, the’re something not quite right.  Their lack of time and effort reflects poorly on them and their message.

As Christians, when our words and deeds don’t line up we confuse people. Ghandi once said,

I’d be a Christian, if it were not for Christians.”

He basically shared how Christians say one thing and do another. There is a story of him being curious about the Christian faith and Jesus. After he read the Gospels, he set out to visit a church where he wasn’t welcomed. He was discriminated against. Can you imagine the impact he would have had in India and the world if he had come to Christ? You can read about that situation here. We must not just talk the talk, but we must walk the walk also. They have to line up.

1 John 2:6 says,

Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes from time to time, giving God bad press by our words or actions. He understands we mess up, which is why He extends grace to repentant hearts. Where is your heart though? What is your normal? Do your words and actions line up in your life on most days? It’s not to late now. Like a master seamstress, take the time to get it straight.