You Should Start Thrifting

I feel like the first post of any series is pretty easy. The other day I just wrote a bunch of nothing to let you know that I want to try more things this year. Now I have to actually do things and then make clever little blog posts about them. What was I thinking?!

Anyways, I’m giving myself a softball to try and ease into things. We can just call it a practice scrimmage, and game day is coming. Today you get to read all about how much I love thrifting! I know, sounds like a home run!

I grew up with 2 parents in full time Christian ministry. And if you don’t understand what that means, just know we did a lot of thrifting for survival and not for aesthetic. I hated going to the thrift store with my mom. I also grew up during the Hollister and Aéropostale craze and thrifting was just not going to cut it for my middle school vanity. I remember saving every penny to buy a new camisole from Hollister and my mom cringing the whole time. Or maybe she was just squinting from the dim lighting and wrinkling her nose at the 45 cologne samples at the check out counter.

Either way, thrifting hasn’t always been a thrill for me. But all it takes is one good thrift trip to catch the bug. Honestly, that’s a terrible analogy when we are talking thrifted items. I pray you never catch any type of bug while you thrift.

I can’t really remember the day that thrifting became cool, but something absolutely switched for me, and now it’s my all time favorite hobby. (Well, for now, we are working on finding more hobbies, ya know.) There really is something to walking into a store looking for nothing, and coming out with the deal of the century. It must be the ancient “gatherer” inside of a woman that makes finding pretty things so exciting. And then you see that adorable sweater is $2.99?! You can not deny the pure joy in that moment.

Living in Alaska, I am constantly on the look out for kid’s winter coats. The thing with kids is, you need a bigger coat every year. So instead of spending hundreds, to the thrift store I go! I have found some pretty good deals over the years, but the other day I finally hit my jackpot. In the coat section there were 6 nice coats all bunched together, they caught my eye immediately. As I flipped through the section, I noticed that every single coat was one of our favorite brands. Everything was under $25, which is less than a fourth of what I would pay brand new. And they all looked almost brand new! No tears, no discoloring - practically in perfect condition. I swooped them all up and took them home. That’s the kind of thrifting trip that will keep you coming back for more.

I think even deeper than the adrenaline rush I get from the deal, is the quietness I find in searching every aisle of a Goodwill. I could truly spend hours inside of one thrift store because I am evaluating practically every item on every shelf. Every single item in that store has a story. Someone’s precious grandmother died and they donated all of her collectable duck paintings. A family was moving to a new city and got rid of their beloved coffee table. A man got married and disappointedly gave up the baseball stadium posters his wife said couldn’t go in the living room. A child grew up and grew out of the Nancy Drew Series they’ve read twice already.

It’s probably just the romantic side of me, but that idea makes thrifting even more valuable. The idea that an item was valuable to someone else before, and it can be valuable again. It’s redemption in our every day items. It has to be the way God sees us. We are just a little candlestick on shelf full of things, but he sees our story, he picks us up, and calls us His own. But that’s not it. He cleans us up and gives us a new purpose and a new life. That is redemption. That is the beauty of taking the old and making it new.

I won’t call thrifting spiritual, but I will say that God’s plan of redemption and the truth of the gospel is saturated in every part of our lives. Which is also kind of like thrifting… You’re not really looking for God, but there He is again, doing something that only God can do, bringing joy and thrill and hope in the darkest and dingiest of places.

So maybe you should start thrifting. Maybe it’s not as gross and embarrassing as you once thought. Maybe it’s the mindfulness that your heart is longing for. Maybe it’s the perfect reminder that God isn’t done with you, and your redemption story is just a moment away. Phillipians 1:6 says, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

P.S.

I honestly didn’t start this blog for spiritual applications; but I have earnestly asked God to guide every word I write on here and if the simple things I can derive from a shopping trip can inspire a single person’s walk with Jesus, I want to be all in! And while we are being honest still, I am shocked that more than 3 people have read anything from this page! That is reason enough to transparently share my heart and love for Jesus and the way He encompasses the every day moments of my life. Nothing is worth pursuing more than Him. He is worthy of our adoration, but gracious enough to give us the desires of our own hearts.

So don’t be scared off yet if you don’t know Jesus. Just come along. I promise I’ll talk about baking and sewing and how bad I am at gardening! You’re gonna love it!