Those little voices... when God whispers to you in everyday life.

Sorry for my extreme laziness... and my poor excuse for a blog! In my defence I have so much reading/writing for uni and the Students for Palestine group I help run at uni, that writing/reading is more of a chore than a release these days...
Also I find (1) as a talkative person and (2) as someone who can’t do things by halves, that in order to get my thoughts out I have to write HUGE posts. So despite the following (LONG) blog I shall endeavour to keep future posts short and sweet! Actually I think I’ll post this as a couple of posts, because I find one long blog is always off putting.. it’s easier to read when its broken up.
So the next few anecdotes are little things that have given me pause for thought over the last few months...

(What)To wear or not to wear...

A quick question for all you full time head coverers/modest dressers? What do you do for swimming? Or at the beach? I used to wear bikinis.. And I find since I changed my wardrobe a bit, people really notice it if I show more skin than usual!
It’s funny I didn’t think my change in dress was that noticeable; I don’t wear long flowery dresses or anything that looks out of the ordinary!..in fact I hardly ever wear dresses, unless its a nice maxi-dress or I’m feeling a bohemian hippy chic! My rule of thumb is modest..but pretty, fashionable, loose but not a shapeless sack or something that makes me look two times bigger than I am!
However one day I went out in jeans with a normal-length top.. a little voice was telling me “should you really be wearing that?” in the back of my head.. but I ignored it.. I like snug jeans.. theres nothing more comfortable.. but these days if my pants are tight (pretty much just my jeans), I wear a long top, or tunic that reaches at least over my bottom, or a loose white shirt belted at the waist (loving this seasons boyfriend-style fashion!). I met up with my friend M., who has only known me since I came back to Australia, and as soon as he saw me he made a comment admiring how my outfit showed off my body. (The little voice shouted “I told you so!”).. Apart from feeling acutely self-conscious for the rest of the day (Not helped by his ostentastiously looking me up and down and whistling) I was amazed to realise that yes, people (even guys) had noticed how I dress! M. Said something like, “Normally you always wear loose and longer clothing.” However although he said my outfit was “sexy” and I "should show off my body more" he also said he liked how I normally dressed. He knows why I dress that way and half off his comments were designed simply to tease me and watch me squirm with self-consciousness! I told him he wasn’t gonna see me in tight jeans again without something covering my booty!

Lesson learned: sometimes God or your
conscience (same thing I guess!) will accuse you in the strangest ways!

Lesson #2: Never under estimate
what people notice about you... Remember as Christians we put ourselves in the
limelight. People are always watching, so be careful not to think you can get
away with it when no one’s looking! (And God always is anyway
J)

Just when you think He’s not looking..

One very normal day when I was sitting on the train, feeling very normal as the train pulled into a station, a man near the doors (I was in the middle of the carriage) called out to me “Hello Princess! Hello!”

• Now I had been in my own little world, I hadn’t seen this guy, or made eye contact. The train was full (although not crowded) and I wasn’t very close to the man. He was around mid to late twenties and had the look of someone who may be either homeless, a bum, not “all there” mentally or any combination of the three. As he called out I looked up (along with everyone else on the carriage) to see he was looking at me, and in fact talking to me. He was beaming at me, and they way he said it, “Hello. Princess,” as thought I was the most beautiful thing he had seen. I was a princess. At that moment I had the feeling that God was speaking to me through this simple, honest man. Out of the mouth of babes? God was looking at me, this normal girl on this normal day, going about her normal chores.. and told me, “Beloved you are beautiful. You are a princess.”
  What could I say? I smiled back and said, “hello,” and he got off the train. As the train pulled away he waved and smiled, seemingly full of delight at seeing me, and mouthing “Bye! Bye Princess!.” Needless to say the entire carriage was quite entertained by the whole scene! I was bemused.. and then felt extremely blessed and well... beautiful. It was the best compliment I have ever had. As thought God had reached down and touched me with His hand.
  Lesson #1: Not matter how ‘invisible’ we are
  God always sees us!
  Lesson #2 : No matter
  who we are in the world.. God uses us!