As a Christian girl who has been spending her time in the bible belt for a little while now, the idea of modesty is not a new concept for me. Modesty though in its essence is a has been a hard concept for me to grasp. However for awhile now God has really been dealing with my heart on the idea of modesty and purity. See they both goes hand and hand. Can you have one without the other, sure to a degree, but at the same time that line is very thin.
As a girl, I find that often I make excuse for the reason why I wear what I wear. Take for an example leggings and yoga pants. Both are extremely comfortable {I.e my excuse} but the other day while I sat amongst boys and I was the only girl the topic of yoga pants/leggings came up. I listened as very godly men begin to talk lustfully about another woman, a potential sister in Christ, simply because she was wearing leggings. As I dwelt upon it throughout the night I couldn't figure out why it bothered me so much that these boys were talking about leggings that way. They are just pants, what's the big deal? It hit me though circa 12am last night though. The reason it bothered me so was because I don't want to feel like an object nor be judge and chosen based upon my body and especially for the clothes that I wear.
In media today women are told to fight for the right to be heard and taken seriously. Many women condemn men for not taking us seriously but at the same time they go out dress provocatively and wonder why. Men are visual humans. When women wear pants that are literally like a second layer of skin, shirts that show off too much of their chest and shorts that are one inch away from being underwear, men no longer have the idea of wanting you simply because of your mind but for your body now too.
Awhile back a friend of mine sent me this video. As I first started to watch the video I was put back wondering why he was sending it to me. He was a dude and it was about bikinis. Now I'm not one to go out in a bikini mainly because I like food and it shows, but when I was thinner, I did. The video is by a women who created a bathing suit line that was modest and she discusses in the speech that she is given why. Check it out:
Then I didn't understand it but now I realize that this video was God ignite that fire in my heart again to strive to be pure. I don't want to cause my brothers in Christ to stumble by something as simple as the way I dress. I don't want to attract men simply by what I wear. I am so much more than what I wear but sometimes the things we clothe ourselves in distracts us from who we really are. I want to be a woman known more for her being clothed in the armor of Christ rather than barely clothed.
I guess what I am trying to get at, is not to condemn those who wear leggings, yoga pants or bikinis but to simply state this. For me, I imagine the day I will meet the man of my dreams. The man of my dreams looks a lot like Tim Tebow, and he doesn't want me because I strut down the beach in a "itsy bitsy" bikini or spend my days running errands in leggings and an over-sized sweatshirt, he doesn't want me because I wear dresses that are too tight and too short that little is left to the imagination or because when I lean over you can see way too much cleavage. He wants me because I am woman after God's own heart, a woman who is pure and represents Proverbs 31 to the best of her abilities. So as I move forward in 2014, I am going to try to look at my clothing and dress in a manor that is pleasing to God and that shows my dignity rather than my body.
Welcome to the Journey,
Amanda
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