Dressember

Celebrating Dressember in style!

Lily: World Changer

If you’re fortunate to be a parent, then I’m sure one day you will have the privilege of admiring the unique person your child has become. Sometimes this catches me off-guard, like when I was waiting in the hallway outside my daughter’s 5th grade classroom for my parent-teacher conference and I busied myself reading the students’ work hanging on the hallway walls. When I found the paper my daughter, Lily, had written, I literally had to choke back tears. She was just 10 years old and I felt that my work as a parent was done. (see photo)

I love when my daughters inspire me to be a better person—to live more thoughtfully, more generously, more Christ-like. They all have done so.

Last year my daughter, Ellen, joined the Dressember challenge—to wear a dress each day in December and to raise money towards fighting against human trafficking. She was part of a Dressember team at Gordon College and personally raised $700. This year she is enthusiastically taking up the challenge again. And since she’s home from school for the month of December, we are all privy to her enthusiasm!

Visit Dressember to learn all the details and history of this movement. The abridged version is: Wear a dress (or tie) every day in December as a “flag” or symbol for the “inherent dignity of all people.” And raise money that will be used to equip “a community of advocates to fight for the dignity of all people, leading to the protection and freedom of millions.”

Ellen put her own fascinating twist on her Dressember campaign this year. Her assignment in her Eschatology class was to choose an issue of interest (human trafficking in the garment industry), examine it through the lens of a discipline other than theology, and then relate that to an eschatological symbol (Kingdom of God). Finally, she created a project based on this research. She is creating a weekly Advent devotional that connects the research, Advent theme, and eschatology. The final piece of the devotional is a prayer focus for the countries in which her dresses were made. (The devotional is a week behind schedule. Check back after Dec. 6.)

What’s all that mean? It means, check out her blog for a weekly Advent devotional that will not only prepare your heart for Christmas, but will educate yourself about human trafficking in the garment industry. If you’d like to follow her on Instagram, you’ll find her at @tagrosh.

If so led, you can donate to Ellen’s Dressember fundraiser.