The Little Black Dress’ ~ Whimsy, Wit and Wisdom ~ Sunday Column

Today I had the opportunity to fill in for Winters Sunday Column  in Newnan Time-Herald and it was my honor and and pleasure.  In the nutshell, it sums up a lot about me and what I believe and the message I often share.  Especially, just how much God loves us and wants to use us!

Sometimes it is easy to look at others’ lives and think they seem so perfect and to have it all together. Well, that may be true until they look at mine.

Winters sometimes finds it just a tad hard being married to a former pageant queen. Most of the time we are just regular gals, but we do have a few pesky quirks. We love to dress up any chance we can and almost never leave the house without makeup. Thank God Winters loves that. But I also have the sense to not take heels camping, thank you very much!

But The LBD is also very particular when it comes to photos. It’s driven Winters crazy for years. Photos last a lifetime – good or bad. Every woman knows that. So there is an “unwritten photo code” with my friends: take it, check it, then delete and take again if it is not acceptable for all other eyes to see.

But now we have “tags.” Those goofy pictures posted on Facebook. The ones you haven’t proofed and you look anything but great. For the LBD, that is usually when camping with Winters and The SONs, then the comments start rolling in like, “You look great” or “You look so happy.” Camping and you look great usually don’t go hand in hand. And good hair day is non-existent. I promise you have never seen a women run so fast in all your life to hit the delete button!

My dear buddies and I took a zillion pictures while I was serving as chaplain at the  Miss Oklahoma pageant a couple of weeks ago. These are the dear friends who know the “photo code.” But sometimes, even with all the best proofing, things get by.

Life can be full of humbling moments. For me it was while wearing a purple dress sitting back with my heels kicked up on the white leather chair at the pageant. I love this picture for many reasons, but most of all because smack dab on the bottom of my fabulous heels, I mean really, fabulous heels, clear as day you can see I never removed the price tag. I have had a million laughs about this so I decided to share the picture price tag for all with the world. Laughing is a good for the soul.

Yes, life is full of crazy and humbling moments, like the time I was at a restaurant and left the bathroom dressed in my Sunday best dragging toilet paper on my other killer heels. Thank God some precious God-fearing man came to tell me. Again, I had to laugh and remember that even when dragging toilet paper on a killer pair of heels, they are still a killer pair of heels!

Just the other night I had the honor to meet the Mayor of Newnan and his wife and the City Manager and his wife as well. Yes, pictures and smiles and all. Best part was I had a gigantic pepper lodged between my teeth.

Ok, God really haven’t I learned enough “humility” or” humblences” as my friend Betsy calls it. The best is Winters never even noticed the pepper. I guess he was so enthralled with what the LBD was wearing he never even saw my smile with the pepper. You gotta love it!

Humility is a great life lesson for all of us and remembering to laugh at ourselves is too. So remember to take a moment to laugh at yourself and whether we are all put together or not God loves our imperfections and I can just hear the Lord saying, “hey, Corby, you are human and whether you have a price tag on your shoe, or you are escorting toilet paper from the bathroom on you heels, or you have a gigantic pepper between your teeth, I love you just the same and you are beautiful to me no matter what.”

Dear friends, my life is wacky. I have pictures to prove it. I know that and I do not claim to be any different. I have my own thorns in the flesh that I struggle with, embarrassing moments to live with and a wonderful family and friends to share it with. We certainty have perfect moments, but our lives are anything other than perfect.

So to all the other LBD’s out there, I pray you will remember that no matter how crazy your life may appear in pictures or in real life, God uses all of our stories, the good, the bad, the ugly and yes, even the wacky to give glory and honor to him – whether you are all put together or not.