Our women’s group at church kicked off the fall with a Goodwill fashion show and lunch last week. A few of the young women modeled their thrifty and fashionable finds from Goodwill. Since 2/3 of our family’s wardrobe comes from Goodwill and other thrift store, this was a function I felt I must attend. Since Mark was working, the girls came along wearing a couple of their cute dresses from Goodwill.
Our numbers for the event were small, but everyone enjoyed sharing info about their finds . . . As I talked about which Goodwill stores I shop in and mentioned other thrift stores in St Louis that I like to frequent, I realized what a blessing it is to live in a country where the cast offs of some are perfectly usable and worth hunting down. It is great to glean from the waste of others. I can’t pretend that I don’t also send my own cast-offs to Goodwill and other charity shops. I am also blessed to have somewhere to take things we can no longer use that still have some wear in them so they can be passed on to others. It was also good for my girls to see that other women in the church whom they respect shop at second-hand stores. They were able to see that we are not the only family that chooses to buy gently used clothes and household items whenever it is feasible. I hope that as they mature, they will remember this and conclude that buying from second hand stores is not something to be ashamed of, but it is something that makes us better stewards of all that we have been given.
(P.S. Did you know you can shop at Goodwill on-line? I have never tried it, but I like the concept. They also have a merchant site on Amazon for books.)