Modesty

What is modest? To me it is covering yourself from your knees to your shoulders. You don’t wear a bikini to the beach? Well for one thing I don’t go to the beach unless I can find one without people because I do not wear stuff like that and I do not want to be around people wearing stuff like that. It is really no different then going to the mall in your underwear.

Have you ever heard someone complain that guys don’t take them seriously? Look at what they are wearing. If they are half dressed I wouldn’t take them seriously either. Why do women complain if a guy looks at her chest if she is leaving it uncovered for him to look at.

Why is it important to be modest? Well for Christians it is what God wants. Proverbs 2:11 tells us to be discreet (modest) also in Proverbs 11:22 it talks about fine jewelry in a pig’s nose. The pig represents people that even if they are beautiful or wear beautiful things, it is the actions and attitude that God looks at. If you met a very attractive man but he was a complete jerk would you date him? No, because no matter how attractive someone is, it does not make up for who they are as a person.

We don’t even have to look at this from a biblical stand point. The thing is that women are putting themselves into harmful situations by the way they dressed. Most guys (not all just most) think that if they can see it they can touch it. Why wouldn’t they if you are putting it out there? You might be saying one thing with your mouth but the way you dress and act speaks louder then your words.

Philippians 2:3-4 talks about strife and vainglory. Do we dress this way to build upon our vanity? The way we dress is can not only harm ourselves but the men around us. 1 Corinthians 8:9 speaks about how we should not be a stumbling block to others. If the way we dress causes men to lust after us, is that not harmful to them? Even not looking at the Bible we can see the harm lust may cause, it can cause women to be put in bad situations, it can break up marriages and destroy lives.

How can we put a stop to this? Start young. I work with middle school children a lot and they try to see how low cut of a shirt, skirt or shorts they can get away with all the time. Who is buying these clothes? Most middle school kids do not have a job so logically their parents buy the clothes for them. So parents make sure you look at what you are buying your kids. Also if you dress them in immodest clothes when they are real young (say elementary age) because it is “cute” then how are you going to tell them it is not okay to wear stuff like that anymore when they get older?

Girls when you buy some clothes try it on and move around in it before you buy it. Make sure the length stays long enough when you sit, that your shirt doesn’t slide down and that you stay modest in it. It is true that most clothing today is not made for people who want to dress modest but there are ways to fix that. A low cut shirt can be fixed by wearing a tank top underneath it or by adding a jacket. Just because the short skirts are “cute” does not mean you can not find longer skirts. You just have to look for them. You can usually find knee length skirts around winter time and they usually do carry springy colors.

Men have to be modest too. I remember when those Bod body spray commercials came out and how shocked I was by them. You have all these shirtless guys running around playing some sort of sport. What is the point of this commercial? To get women to lust after them and men to think that if they wear that spray women will lust after them too. Women can lust after men with nice abs as easy as a guy can lust after a woman with nice legs.