I have said previously in my posts that we can set certain
guidelines for ourselves to help us remain pure physically, and I would like to
talk to girls today about how that we can set guidelines to help us be pure in
our conduct and the way we dress. I would like to talk on something that we as
girls are always concerned about…our bodies.
Before I go any further, I want to point out that I don’t
see anything wrong with jewelry, braided hair, taking care of your body, etc,
but when we obsess over these things and put them higher than our relationship
with God, it becomes a problem.
We are bought with a price, therefore valuable to God
1 Corinthians 6:20
'For God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.'
'For God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.'
God paid the price for us by sending His son! God
thought us extremely valuable, so much so that he chose us, and adopted us.
So many times we judge ourselves by the world’s standards of
beauty (which changes all the time) and get sad and depressed when we don’t measure
up, but we are looking at the outside, and using the wrong measuring stick.
"But the LORD said to
Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him.
The LORD doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward
appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1
Samuel 16:7
What God sees in us is our inner
beauty…
The Lord Looks at the heart
While others are obsessing over their outward appearance, we
as believers have things we need to work on so that our insides look good.
A woman of beauty is described as having a ‘gentle and quiet
spirit’. The opposite of this can be found in Proverbs 9:13: ‘ The woman Folly
is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.’ A beautiful woman is not loud,
doesn’t get angry easily, is not forward, and is well informed. Sometimes we
try new products to make us look thinner, our skin clearer, etc. but to become
more and more beautiful in God’s eyes, the thing we must do is to strengthen
our relationship with God. (Proverbs 30:30)
The closer our relationship with God, the more others can
see Him through us! This doesn’t mean that we can just let our outside go and
not care for our bodies! God says that our bodies are His temple. It just means
that we can’t be consumed with outer beauty, because it isn’t going to last.
Only a relationship with God can last for an eternity.
The way we do dress, can also be a reflection of our
relationship with God. My husband talked about one Wednesday night about how that part of our dating witness (or if you are
not dating as well) is not leading our fellow brothers in Christ into
temptation by the way we dress.
What we wear should help our brothers in Christ to not be tempted
"Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works." (I Timothy 9: 9-10)
Guys think a lot differently than we do! I think most of us
girls (or at least I think) dress for each other. As I said earlier, we try to
live up to the world’s standard of beauty and style. With that being said, we
realize that when we wear more revealing clothing we get ‘noticed’ a lot more,
or we see that girls who dress to reveal get more guys/attention.
What we have to realize is that the guys that go after a
girl who seeks attention (of her body) are ones that are looking for an ‘easy’
girl. Guys who go with girls who dress immodestly are expecting a lot more
(physically) out of them. Christian guys struggle with lust and wanting an easy
girl too, and we aren’t making resisting temptation any easier by dressing
immodestly (especially at church!) I know last night I mentioned to the girls
that guys often go after the easy girl(just because she is, well, easy), and
don’t always think about the short term/long term effects, but I do want to
make clear that the guy that you marry will be very thankful that you dressed modestly!
We as Christian girls
need to let our clothing be a witness of our faith and purity. Just like sex
needs to be in the confines of marriage, so does exposing our bodies need to be
inside of marriage as well.
So how tight is too tight? How short is too short? How low
is too low? We know certain things, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if the
neckline that isn’t showing anything is really too low or not. If you have a
father or brother to talk to about it, then that is a good way to know, but
sometimes if we don’t have either, or they aren’t close, we have to ask ourselves
these questions when buying clothes:
(from https://www.reviveourhearts.com/articles/questions-ask-your-mirror/
)
- Is there writing (or pictures) on my clothing that emphasizes private parts of my body?
- If someone were to look at me, where would their eyes naturally go—to my face, eyes, hips, thighs, breasts, etc.? Where do I want men looking when I come into view?
- Is the fabric that I’m wearing too sheer? Could someone see through it to private parts of my body?
- Am I wearing tight, form-fitting clothes? (A well-known designer once said, “Your clothing should be tight enough to show that you’re a woman, but loose enough to show that you’re a lady!”)
- Do my pants fit correctly? Are they too tight? Do they cling to the hips, thighs, etc.?
- Am I wearing anything provocative? (Today, underwear has become outerwear—often designed to be provocative. To expose undergarments is to tease men.)
God has paid a high price for us, so we are to
honor Him with our bodies…we shouldn’t be dressing, or acting to pleasing other
girls, guys, or even ourselves but God. I want you to know that God thinks you are beautiful, I mean, he made you! Even more importantly
though, God thinks that you are valuable. So let’s be God honoring women in our
actions and by the way we dress!
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