Modesty, my things have certainly changed!

Recent thoughts surrounding  scantily dressed cheerleaders at football games, short dresses, cleavage showing everywhere and pajama pants becoming normal day wear led me to write on the subject of modesty.

And I started thinking that the younger generation might not know some of the modernity of scant dress.  Let me share some of the "old" days so you will understand.

When I was a girl in elementary school, we could not wear pants unless it was 32 degrees or less outside.

We mostly wore dresses.Those dresses had to be knee length. How would the principal judge? You got down on your knees in the hall and if your dress or skirt did not touch the floor, you were busted.

(Yes, school principals did that and no one called the police!)

By the time high school rolled around, we were allowed to wear pants but no jeans.

We did  finally have Friday "jean day" where they were allowed.
I do not think jeans were considered immodest, they were just casual clothes that farmers wore and I am sure our school principal did not understand our desire to wear them.

In college for the most part, we dressed for class, nothing fancy but a simple dress, pants or skirt with sweater.

In order to wear our sorority pin, we must wear a dress, and we all wore our pins on Fridays.

I went on a choir tour to Europe in my teens, we wore dresses, knowing that we would be entering many cathedrals and we carried a handkerchief in case we had to cover our heads. A covered head was a sign of respect and hats were once worn in church to cover ones head.

All of that may sound "old fashioned" perhaps but we were a more modest society back then and we were more respectful of decorum and proper dress was required for certain places.

Now, let's move forward thirty years.

Cheerleaders stomachs are almost always fake tanned and showing. In the NFL the skimpier the costume, the better.

Dresses are made to show more cleavage than a Las Vegas show, and those dresses are worn to church and weddings and many other places besides night clubs.

Anyone remember the White House flip flop scandal?

A sports team was honored at the White House and some came in wearing flip flops....

Flip-Flops worn to the White House  to meet the President of the United States of America?!
Come on, really?
If there ever was a circumstance to wear real shoes it might be while meeting the President of the United States at the White House.

My daughter's college professor once said; "Real women do not get to do real women things wearing flip-flops."

Amen sister, amen.
You are attending college in order to master a subject and then go out into the real world and become a success. Do you think flip-flops and pajama pants help mold you into that person?
Someone once said  "Don't dress for the level of the job you have, dress or the level of the job you want to have"
What job requires wearing pajama pants I wonder?

And finally, the pajama pant conundrum.

You see them everywhere, in the store, in the college classroom, I saw a woman walking down the street in them the other day! Geesh! And ma'am, I do not want MY husband seeing you in your pajama pants in the grocery store, please!

We have uncovered, flimsily dressed, and pajama panted our way into an highly over sexed culture, and we are paying the price.

We have placed sex in most every ad, we have have soft porn on magazine covers, we have television and radio commercials that I am shocked to see or hear.

And remember our children are hearing and watching all of these things as well.

Things once were different and we were more modest, more covered up.

I am not writing to scold or lecture but I am writing to remind us all, and especially as women, we reap what we sow. We also have a responsibility to teach our young daughters how to dress and act and we have a responsibility in our proper dress as well.

We always have the freedom to choose our dress

but with freedom also comes responsibility.
Is there a Biblical principle that applies?
As always, yes.
Romans 14:21
"The right thing is to eat no meat or drink no wine [at all], or [do anything else] if it makes your brother stumble or hurts his conscience or offends or weakens him."
(Amplified Version)
We are given a biblical mandate to; not cause our brother to stumble or to hurt his conscience or offend or weaken him.
We all live in community. We have heard that we are a part of the "village" well, yes we are.
We are obliged to not make others stumble, which means not to feed someones lust or desire, by our improper dress or behavior.
No, you have no control over what someone does in their mind.
But we do have a responsibility to not weaken our brother whether that be our men, women, or children.
Our society is weaker not stronger because of all of the casual dress and flesh.
Are we doing our part to make our society stronger?
We do have a part to play.
Are we up to the challenge?
Young women, are you up to the challenge?
Are we up to the challenge or laying aside some of our freedoms in order to dress properly?
Are we up to the challenge or raising godly daughters who know how to dress properly?
I love our modern world, my i-pod, computer, the internet.
I love hearing news in an instant and having a world of knowledge at my fingertips.
But not every aspect of the "old days" was bad.
Morals, are a good thing. Knowing how to honor with our dress is also
a good thing.
Are you up for the challenge?