Mind the Gap

I recently completed a 31-day get dressed challenge on TikTok and Instagram. And what a challenge it was! I honestly did not anticipate how hard it would be to put on an outfit, jewelry, makeup, and do my hair every day for an entire month! It was exhausting! Some mornings, I just didn’t have it in me and went without makeup, had minimal jewelry, and the most basic outfit I could find. Others, I knew exactly how I wanted to feel and had the perfect outfit to make it happen. On the days I felt great, I looked great. On the days I didn’t, you could definitely tell. My outfit choices were a reflection of my daily mental and physical state. When I didn't have the words, motivation, or energy to pull myself together it was just as noticeable as that missing wardrobe accessory needed to tie my look together.

Pre- September 2025 Jasmine would have allowed the lack of perfect outfit days to discourage and derail her from completing the 31 days. But when I tell you that God is doing a good work in my life, times like this prove it is true. Instead of stopping because conditions were less than optimal, I persevered through travel, sickness, and monthly hormonal shifts. Now I have identified the gaps in my wardrobe and can henceforth shop with intention knowing that I need a long black overcoat, new (non-skinny) jeans, and number of accessories. Let’s be honest, it’s those small details that make an outfit.

While that is great and I cannot wait to add all those things to my wardrobe, this challenge taught me so much more than what to add to my Torrid cart. It made me think about all the places in my life that were lacking if only because I wasn’t paying them close enough attention. I asked myself what was I lacking that would make me more complete as a person. The Holy Spirit whispered in my ear, “Look at where you have been challenged.”

Excuse me??? Where I’ve been challenged?? My first thought is that every area of my life is a challenge. It is a challenge to get out of bed most days, but ok let me look at where I’ve been challenged. So I did. I took a good look at the areas of my life that I have had the hardest time getting a handle of and found a few spaces that could use an accessory or two to pull it together. As I was thinking about this, I was reminded that God challenges us to reveal the gaps in our lives. The places where we need His help to make us look more like Him. I know it’s easy to say, “Jesus fills in those gaps, so I don’t need to worry about it.” But that would suggest that the Lord is ok with us staying as we are and He loves us entirely too much for that. Pick a character in the Bible and show me where they weren’t challenged in order to make them better in some way. Jacob was challenged by the angel and his name was changed to Israel. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were challenged and promoted to governors of Babylon. David was challenged and became the greatest king in the Bible.

There are areas where we so obviously need Jesus that it is easy to “let go and let God”. But then there are others that are shrouded by the difficulties that amplify them. One of my prayers is always, “Lord, bring anything that is keeping me from You to my attention so I can give it to You in surrender. The way He gets our attention is through the challenges He brings us to. For example, one of my challenges is making healthy food choices for my family, specifically when it’s dinner time. I have a husband and two girls and they have to eat every day at least 3 times a day. Typically, everyone takes care of breakfast and lunch, but when dinner comes around, that dreaded question rears its ugly head, “What’s for dinner?” Granted most of the time it is me asking my husband what is for dinner, but on the rare occasion that he just doesn’t have it in him or maybe he is out of town, that question is directed at me and 99.5% of the time my answer is, “I don’t know.”

So in this particular challenge, it has been brought to my attention that I have a space from about 3 to 4:30 where I can start dinner without the stress of hungry eyes burning a hole into my back rushing me to put together a meal that will probably not taste good. In this time period, if used wisely, I have the chance to take my time with a nice glass of wine and a good playlist to make chopping, seasoning, and standing in front of a hot stove more bearable. So now I know that the problem is not that I don’t want to provide my family with a healthy, delicious meal every evening it’s that my time management and intentionality is not where it needs to be when it comes to dinnertime. So what is the prayer? And this is definitely a topic that needs prayer because the way I don’t like cooking should be studied, but I will do it for them. The prayer is that the Lord help me to be more intentional when thinking about dinner and think about it before hand, not in the moment, and that I use the time I’ve been given to create an environment that will allow ease and enjoyment to come into my cooking instead of hurried stress.

This is just one area where this clarity has created a path for improvement. It is also a place of encouragement because it’s proof that God cares about the mundane parts of our lives. It’s proof that small things have big impact because I know when I begin to implement the changes I know I need my family will benefit. Who knows what affect that will have outside of my home or even in the lives of my children 10 years from now? Also, not I’m not afraid to look in those crevices to see where I’m lacking because I know that anything I give to God will be infinitely better in His hands.

So I encourage you to mind the gap and look into those spaces where you aren’t your best. Give them over to God in prayer and allow Him to fill those spaces with new responses, new attitudes, new mindsets, new routines, new intention that will improve your life exponentially before you know it.