His Dresser Runneth Over

I’m not afraid to admit it: I’m a frugal person. “Frugal” is a much nicer word that “stingy” or “cheap” so I’ll use that. I’ll rarely buy my kids clothes unless it’s on the 75% off rack at Target. Sometimes I’ll splurge and get an item or two off the 50% rack, but that’s only if they really need it right then, or I know it rarely goes on sale, and they will need it and there’s only one left on the rack, etc. I buy my boys 2 pairs of shoes a year: a winter pair and summer sandals. Boots get handed down, and I buy them usually 2 sizes too big so they’ll last a few years. Silje gets 3 pairs of shoes a year, and that’s because I think she should have a pair of dress shoes to wear to church with her dresses in the winter, instead of her tennis shoes. In the summer, she just wears her sandals with her dresses.

However, I’ll admit, and this is in no way trying to toot my horn, I love buying things for other people more than for myself. This is most true when it comes to my sister, Heidi. It goes both ways, because I think she has as much fun spoiling me as I have spoiling her. Both of us are cheap as cheap could be, but we’d eat Raman noodles for a week to afford to get stuff for each other. When I was pregnant with Elias, she sent me a gift in the mail each month of the pregnancy. Sometimes it was just a fun lotion, or purse, or maybe even something for the baby on the way.

So although everyone else seemed surprised when I offered to make Heidi’s diapers, when she found out she was pregnant, I think she and I knew that I really wanted to do it. (There are more to come, you know. I only made the size smalls. We still have mediums and larges to go!) When I said that however, no one know she was having twins yet. When I found out I would be making twice as many diapers as I had promised to, some family members pulled together and helped me out with the cost of materials for the rest, which was so nice. However, knowing Heidi, she was thinking of a way to bless me back, since I was still going to have to do twice the sewing.

So when she called me saying that her son Jack had outgrown some clothes that Elias might fit into that she was going to get rid of, I agreed I’d love them. You see, David is a bit, well, how can I put it…rough and tumble? And his clothes, well…show it. So poor Elias inherited a wardrobe of tattered clothing. It was so bad that I was getting to the point of considering paying full price for a decent pair of pants for him to wear. Yeah…I know! Me considering full price is pretty desperate!

I knew Heidi’s son Jack, had an awesome wardrobe. How, might you ask, did Jack get such an amazing wardrobe with a “frugal” mom? Well, Heidi has a friend who has, well, really rich friends. And these really rich friends asked Heidi’s friend if she knew anyone they could hand clothes down to, and Heidi’s friend said Heidi might like them.

Did you follow that?

So Heidi got a huge amount of clothes from this rich neighborhood of families. All of the clothes were worn by just one child, and there were so many of them, that hardly any of them had a chance to wear out. So my nephew Jack had such a good rotation of clothes that they hardly wore out, and now, this huge stash of clothes is Elias’.

And let me tell you, now his dresser runneth over.

I just finished finally going through them and WOW! Just WOW!

There are 7 swimming shorts. Seven. That may be a fundamental wardrobe difference between Arizona and Minnesota, but still…seven.

In Elias’ dresser, I had short sleeve shirts on one side of a drawer, and long sleeves on another side. As I was cramming in all those Ralph Lauren and Gymboree shirts and they weren’t all fitting in, I had to take out all his remotely warm clothes, and pack them away for summer. So now his summer clothes fill up a huge trash bag in the closet by themselves, when usually that entire size (both summer and winter clothes) fills one bag.

And the shoes! There are at at least 5 pairs of shoes in each size…for his next few sizes: at least one pair of Converse shoes, one pair of dress shoes, one pair of casual sandals, and one pair of leather/dressy sandals, and one pair of house slippers. Again, there’s barely any dirt even on these shoes.

As I have just spent the last 2 hours sorting, folding, and putting away all of these clothes I can’t help but feel blessed.

This is grace. This is God’s blessing…for no reason. Why on earth I get to have the fun of dressing my baby in these fun clothes is beyond me. My sister and I had kind of a saying growing up. Since my parents divorced at an early age, and my Dad lived miles and miles away, and then went through a bought of unemployment due to several factors, we went through some times of need together.

We always remembered, though, that although our earthly father couldn’t always come through for us, our Heavenly Father always did. And when you take God, not just as your Savior, but as your Father, you can ask him of anything you would normally ask your Daddy. For example: when we would normally ask our Dad for money for a dress for a school banquet/dance, and we couldn’t do that, we would ask God. Seriously! We would ask God for it. And then one would at least arrive on our doorstep, being our exact size and look great on us, or we would find it on a clearance rack, costing less than $20.

When each of us were getting married, and much of the burden of paying for the wedding was on us, it got tough. I remember talking on the phone with Heidi during one of those stressful times as I was trying to put myself through college and pay for my wedding at the same time she would say “Gretchen, our Daddy owns a thousand cattlle on a hill. You can ask him for anything. This is HIS DAUGHTER’S wedding. And the Father of the bride pays. It’s tradition.” And you know what, I’m not sure how, but it all worked out. Because that’s God.

I think like any father, God doesn’t want to feel used, or feel like his only relationship with us is simply an exchange of stuff. In fact, I think the blessings God has to offer, go way way way further than stuff.

But God cares about the “stuff” too. I honestly feel like God has fun giving to Heidi and me, just like we have fun giving to each other.

Sometimes, it overwhelms me.

God provided not only our weddings, but amazing husbands for us. Husbands who are hard workers, and amazing fathers. God provided vans when we needed them, and children in both number, timing, and temperment, that most obviously he picked out! God gave us this house, which is the nicest home I have ever had in my whole life. Why would God do that?

And on top of that, God has clothed my children in fine clothes. I am overwhelmed, and most obviously, Elias’ dresser now runneth over.