Two weeks in a dress Day 5

(originall posted on my homeschooling blog November 14, 08)

The last 5 days have been a big time of change in my thinking. I expected doing this challenge would affect me but I truly did not realize how clearly God was going to speak to me through this time.

I have really looked at the motives behind what things I wear. I've realized how every time I try something on I'm looking to see how complimentary it is to the female areas of my body. (I'm being blunt and vulnerable here but I want to share what God is showing me.)

There is nothing wrong with looking nice. I believe God does want us to take care of our bodies and to be well groomed. But what I've realized is that my heart has been very sinful in this area. I've taken on the ways of the world, without thinking about it.
Our culture is all about looking sexy & showing off what you got (showing off is not a fruit of the spirit!) to the degree that I think, even as Christian women (without realizing it), our minds have accepted the idea that looking nice means looking attractive, drawing other people's attention to our physique; simply put - showing off what the Lord has given us, or a plastic surgeon has given us, for that matter.
I realized how much I'd been pulled into that. It takes some courage to say that but, it's true.

Our bodies are not to be ashamed of. They are beautiful as God created them. But He did not create them to show off to the world. Our body is for our husband's eyes only. The following says it so perfectly God Pleasing Attire. I am done dressing to fit in or be pleasing in our culture. My body is not for public display or attention, it is for my husband.

1 Peter 3:1 "Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment... instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful."

I don't want people to notice me for my figure or my clothes. I want them to see a daughter of the King who is radiating His love and whose appearance is completely pure and reverent; not drawing attention to what God created for my husband alone and not causing impure attention from other men.

So, as I hope is clear, this is a heart issue for me. Something God has placed strongly on my heart. There may be some women wearing the exact outfits as me and God may not be convicting them. Their heart and their motives may not be as ugly as I'm realizing mine were. However, I'm also learning that God IS convicting a lot of Christian women in this area. I know He's calling me to a new dress code!

1 Timothy 2:9 - 11:
"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair, or gold, or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."

In the dictionary propriety means: The quality of being proper, acceptable.
Am I (are we) accepting a standard that is acceptable in God's eyes or the world's eyes?

Definitions of modesty: moderate & decent, quiet and humble in appearance or style, freedom from vanity & boastfullness.