I had thought that the first topic I would discuss would be something really awesome and deep like "fighting for time in the Word every day" or something along the lines of "not going by feelings but by doing what is right, regardless of how I feel". The idea of talking about modesty to begin with was something that crossed my mind but was immediately disregarded, partially because I thought it was too typical. Of course it is an important issue, but I wanted my first real post on the issue of being a woman the way God intended it to be "deeper" than modesty. I wanted it to be a heart issue that people struggle with, and modesty just did not seem like a good enough place to start.
Man, was I wrong. Without going into too much detail on how I got there, I was directed to C.J. Mahaney's blog, where he did a short series on modesty. I read each part of the series and was convicted. I realized that it was a serious heart issue, and that all issues of the heart are really the same. Immodesty, like so many other sins, is a result of wanting to please others instead of wanting to please God. It is just as big of a deal as any other sin issue.
Mahaney's blog used I Timothy 2:3-10 as its scriptural support. Over and over, he went back to those verses, showing piece-by-piece what it meant. He explained several things that I had heard before but were good to think about again. Mahaney talked about how modesty shows humility. He said that dressing modestly is a way to serve our brothers in Christ. In one of the short "chapters", he had two young men describe their fight to stay pure in their thoughts in the midst of immodest women. Those men described what a fight it was (even at church!) to have pure thoughts. One said that he sometimes had to walk looking at the sidewalk while listening to worship music because nothing else could guard his eyes from seeing things that he wanted to see and his mind from thinking things he did not want to imagine. Those young men, as so many others, really have to fight to keep their minds from going down the wrong road.
This spoke volumes to me. I teared up thinking of what I had done to my brothers in Christ. Have I made it hard for them to focus on conversations with me because of my clothes? Can they look at me without stumbling? Am I hindering their goal of God-pleasing thoughts? These guys are my brothers in Christ, and I may be making them sin rather than encouraging them to love the Lord more. Many godly men fight to keep their thoughts pure-am I helping them in their quest for mental purity, or hindering them? My prayer is that I, and anyone else reading this, fight just as hard to be modest as my brothers in Christ have to fight to think purely. I want them to be able to spend time with me and be able to relax, knowing that they won't have to constantly guard their thoughts from wandering where they shouldn't go.
I was so convicted by this and hope that I never forget this important lesson. I need to serve my brothers in Christ by paying attention to what I wear so that I make sure it will not hinder them. As I said before, I was not planning on discussing this topic quite yet in my blog. I did not even mean to come across the topic of modesty, but I did, and it was so in-my-face that I had to share it.
I'm going to end with one last question: Do the clothes I wear show that I am with the world or with Christ?
**An afterthought: This morning I remembered something relating to this that I meant to put in this post when I first wrote it, but forgot. During one of our dorm chapels (CDub, of course), our RD Amber brought up the subject of modesty and the way she put it spoke volumes to me. She talked about Adam and Eve, and how they were naked from their creation until their fall. Then, once they sinned and God came looking for them, they knew they were naked and had to hide from Him. Because of their sin, they had to cover their nakedness. I can't quite remember all that she said, because it was so early in the school year, and I do not want to mess up the doctrine, so I'm not going to go into more detail than that. Basically, they needed clothes to show their humility before God. When we clothe ourselves, we need to think about the fact that the reason to cover ourselves is to show our humility before God. If we are not properly covering ourselves, we need to ask ourselves if we are properly humble.
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