Polka-Dotted Beauty

Recently, I attended a celebration event for my place of employment.  This prestigious event was celebrating 50 years of our being a part of the community, and the only reason I was invited was because I was helping put on the event.  Nevertheless, I was required to dress in cocktail attire.  I had no idea what cocktail attire was and I knew that I didn’t own anything in my closet that would be appropriate for this event.

If you know me at all, you know that I am not a flashy fashion guru.  I happen to also be pretty cheap and nine times out of ten, I don’t buy clothes brand new either.  So I went online and searched cocktail dresses and I scoffed.  It sort of made me sad to think that dresses these days are not much of a dress at all – short and skimpy.  I was also not about to spend $100 on a dress, that I knew I wasn’t going to wear often at all.

So when I kissed my husband goodbye to head to the store, he told me what he thought I should spend and I said ok with a smile. 

My first stop the Goodwill.  Yeah, you saw that one coming right?  Well, I happen to live in an area that people donate some of the nicest clothes.  My daughter came with and helped me pick out three or four dresses and I proceeded to the fitting rooms.  The first one was really cute; it was white with black polka-dots or was it black with white polka-dots, with cute pink straps.  Anyhow, it fit wonderfully.  It wasn’t too short and it was rather flattering on me if I say so myself.  My daughter liked it too and I put it in our basket.  I proceeded to tried on the others and although I liked them, I knew they were not cocktail attire.  So I check out with my $4.50 polka-dotted cocktail dress. 

Now here’s where the story gets really good.  It’s the night of the event.  My co-workers and I get everything set up and we then go and change into our cocktail attire outfits.  They both had very beautiful black dresses and I put on my polka-dotted dress and head out to the start greeting guest. 

It began, one after another.  Complements.  How beautiful I looked.  How cute my dress was.   How I clean up nice.  I had them all night long.  Though it made me feel really beautiful, it made me feel good that I didn’t’ have to buy a $100 dress to look good.  We tell ourselves to be beautiful we have to meet a certain checklist.   God tells us, it’s not what’s on the outside that makes us beautiful, it’s what’s on the inside. 

Our society continues to tell us that we should look like models and actresses.  We must starve ourselves to be thin, have great skin and clothes that perhaps we can’t really afford. 

I could have gone out and bought a $100 dress and looked just as beautiful on the outside.  But I like to think the confidence and joy of my $4.50 dress was all I needed.  I was a polka-dot beauty because that’s the way God made me.