All About Clothing
10:42 AMI so thankful for all of your comments on yesterdays Show and Talk, it makes it so much more interesting. I think that Jessica pointed out something very important in her comment yesterday. It is not so much how much we cover, but whether or not what we wear is a stumbling block to our brothers in Christ. No matter what we wear, whether it’s a dress, a skirt and shirt, or pants and shirt, if the style is meant to attract attention to yourself, it can become a stumbling block. We need to make sure that we are sending the right message to our brothers in Christ by what we wear.
With all that said, I also want to caution you all to not become legalistic. I know that I tend to look down on people who dress in pants not dresses. What God has shown me over the past few years is that I can encourage girls to modest but I should not condemn them just because they wear pants. I have a good friend who wears pants. and she is such a sweet girl. What God has taught me through her is to allow her to be called to a different standard then I am.
Allowing people to be different is hard, and it is something that the church in general is lacking these days. I am not saying that we should allow people to sin and ignore it by saying that they are ‘just different’. What I am saying is that if the Bible does not say that something is wrong, (I can’t find thou shall not wear pants in the Bible, bummer) then we should not say that they have to do it our way.
What are your standards on clothing? Do you have any helpful tips or words of encouragement you would like to share?
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3 comments
Excellent point Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI have two girls that I am friends with that wear pants, and to be perfectly honest, I didn't become friends with either of them until after I had switched to wearing dresses.
One of these such friends is a girl who goes to my church and has been there since I was little. She is a year younger than me, but I don't feel the age difference. I didn't become friends with her until my graduating year of high school. I was in a choir and the girls and guys each had a separate song to sing. The girls who were graduating, decided to do a dance for the song we were singing. I was fine with this. I like dancing even though I am not so good at it. but as the weeks progressed and the concert came closer, I realized that there were some moves that made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Not because of the way I was doing them, but because of the way some of the other girls were. To them, it didn't seem at all sensual. They said that was not what kind of girls they were at all. This is partly true. However, the way they moved at certain times in then dance was in a way that would be a stumbling block to young men.
As it came even closer to the concert, the discussion of what to wear came up and the girls decided that because it was a Christmas concert, they would dress up in a simple long sleeved high neckline black shirt, a red skirt with white trim (which came to their knees) and also suggested wearing fish net stockings. For those of you who don't know what this is, fish net is a very holey fabric and looks similar to an actual fish net.
I knew I did not feel comfortable wearing this and the length of the skirts made me uncomfortable as well.
I humbly bowed out of the dancing part of the song and just sang with the rest of the girls. I wrote a letter to the lady overseeing it all and she said that she understood and it was fine.
To get back to my friend, this is how I ended up becoming good friends with her. She had been assigned at the beginning of the year to be seated next to me in our voice section. When I shared with her the reasons for my not dancing with the other girls, she said she thought that was good of me to stand up for myself and what I believed. We became closer after that and the night of the concert she surprised me with a gift saying that she admired my strength and faith in the Lord and that she thought I had done the right thing in standing up for myself.
Ever since we then, we have been friends. Even though she wares pants, I don't judge her for it. I have come to see her heart and I know that she is following the Lord's leading in her life. Just because God has not led her to believe she needs to wear dresses does not mean that he is not active in her life and using her for his glory to further his kingdom. One of her nicest and best character qualities is her lack of judgment towards people. Because of this, she has had many ministry opportunities to both young men and women.
I shared this story because I wanted to show just how important it is to not judge others. When we judge other people because of the way they look, we could miss out on getting to know some great people and miss opportunities to share the gospel with others.
Love in Christ,
Jessica
I wear pants. But I am actually looking for some long skirts to wear. I don't care what other kids in my youth group say about me wearing skirts on Wednesday. If I want to e feminine then I will. Nobody is stopping me. That's my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAlli
Hi Sarah!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts on this sensitive subject.I too have struggled to find a balance between desiring to be femenine and modest without being legalistic.
I have learned much on this subject from watching my mom. Though she does not wear skrirts and dresses all the time, her clothing is modest but most importantly she has an attitude of modesty. A young lady can wear a dress every day of the week but if she has a loud obnoxious attitude she is just as wrong as someone dressed immodestly.
Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts! Thanks for following my blog!
McKenzie Elizabeth