Even though I really like having them, the upkeep is more than I can bear because I have to drive 40 minutes each way every other Sunday and sit there for 30 minutes or more while they fill and file them back into mint condition. Don’t get me started on how long it takes to remove them and restart the process (which you have to do regularly as well)!

Recently, I had a big “thing” at work and felt I needed that extra special “umph” that the French manicured acrylic nails give me. So, I did it. I spent a Sunday afternoon getting my nail done (well, and a pedicure, because, you know, I drove for 40 minutes to get there and needed to get good value. LOL).

If you have never had your super short, won’t-grow-for-love-or-money nails exchanged for fake nails, let me tell you, they change everything. My typing went from making a “thunk, thunk, thunk” sound to “tappity, tippity, tappity.” I cannot work the smaller clasps on my necklaces and have to get my husband to do it. Working button closures is now an art form and I really have to watch it when I put on pantyhose.

Similarly, when I decided to “put on Christ” it changed everything.

When I made the decision to “put on” Christ, did I realize it would change every decision, every thought, every word and every action? I’m not sure. I know that I expected change, but I’m not sure I realized in that moment how different from my natural, “pretty nice,” “reasonably loving,” “good person” self was from who Christ really is and who I should be if I “put on Christ.”

I have a better understanding now that if putting on Christ doesn’t change everything – and I mean everything – my view on life, my relationship with others, my focus, my thoughts, my view on social issues, how I do my job (and what job I do), my standard of morality, how I spend my time, etc. – then I have not really put Him on.

Did I realize that putting on Christ would require a willingness to put in time with Him? If I am unwilling to spend focused time with Him in prayer and study, then I have not really put on Christ.

I have a better understanding of the value of time spend with Him and the way it strengthens my ability to stay adhered to Him when life would time to pry me away.

When I take off these nails, I know my own natural nails will be extra week. But they were weak anyway, which is why I needed the acrylics to reinforce them with strength they don’t have on their own.

I have to face that I am really weak without Christ and that I am only strong if have put on the reinforcement that He provides. Any strength I have comes from surrounding my life, my mind and my heart with Him and sticking to Him like these acrylic nails stick to my natural nails.

I have to face the fact that the strength that exists is not now, nor can it ever be mine on my own.

Maybe you feel that analogy of Christ as someone or Christianity as something “put on” isn’t the right approach. Let me see if I can convince you with these scriptures:

Gal 3:27 [KJV] 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Eph 4:24 [KJV] 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Col 3:10, 12, 14[ KJV] 10 And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: … 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; … 14 And above all these things [put on] charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

Eph 6:11 [KJV] 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

And finally – the ultimate in “putting on:” 1Co 15:53-54 [KJV] 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

I’ve had these latest nails for just about five weeks. I’ve already been through two updating fill and file sessions, and I’m dreading going back for the next in a few days. I’m thinking about taking them off already. Maybe I’ve got some buyer’s remorse or it could just be that the “tappity, tippity, tappity” of the typing all day long is driving me bonkers.

But I don’t feel any buyer’s remorse when it comes to having put on Christ. I rest in His strength daily and know that when I am weak, He is strong.