TRADING ASHES FOR BEAUTY IN CHRISTIAN DRESS

Fundamental Baptist Information Service ^ | April 25, 2006 | David Kidd

[Full Court]

A Conversation on Dress An Excerpt from Beautiful Girlhood By Margaret Hale

       "Mother, said Jennie Vane one day as the two sat together sewing. Why do you not want me to wear my necklines low?"

       "What do you call a low necked dress?" asked her mother.

       "You know how the girls mostly wear them low like this," said Jennie, with her finger making on her bosom a line that she called low. Mrs. Vane looked to God for wisdom to rightly answer, and to equip Jennie with enough Christian sense to dress modestly despite the popular trend and fashion.

       "I do not require you to make your dresses with close fitting necks, Jennie, but I have reasons which I am only too glad to explain to you why I do not approve such necklines as you've described."

       "I want to know just why Mother, for sometimes I feel a little odd that none of my dresses are made that way."

       "One of the first evidences of a real lady, is that she should be modest. By modesty we mean that she shall not say, do, nor wear anything that would cause her to appear gaudy, ill-bred, or unchaste. There should be nothing about her to attract unfavorable attention, nothing in her dress or manner that would give a man an excuse for vulgar comment. When we dress contrary to the rule of modesty we give excuse for unwholesome thoughts in the mind of those who look upon us, and every girl who oversteps these bounds makes herself liable to misunderstanding and insult, though she may be innocent of any such intention."

        "Shouldn't men learn to guard their thoughts?" asked Jennie.

        "There," replied her mother, "is the very question, put in a little different form, that Cain gave to God about his brother: 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Yes, Jennie, to a great extent we are responsible to our brother's thoughts. But I would not have you think that all men are so weak. There are strong, true, pure-minded men and boys to whom these weaknesses of women are not a temptation. But there are the weaker also, and for them we are partly responsible. Let us suppose that upon the streetcorner there stands a group of men and boys among them being two boys whose minds are pure. You and another girl are dressed with very low necks, very thin blouses and your skirts are quite short. The scantiness of your dress attracts attention to your person. You may behave as perfect ladies, but as you pass the corner your appearance causes worldly minded to think and say vulgar things about you. The pure-minded boys hear, and their minds are defiled. You girls are as much to blame for what has happened as the impure man or boy who said the evil things."

http://www.momof9splace.com/conversation.html

[Full Court]

Homeschool ping

[PetroniusMaximus]

To all:

Look at the young people in your church.

Do they look worldly and aloof?

If so there is a serious and possibly fatal spiritual problem in your church.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

The other day I went to walmsrt to look for a blouse. Almost everything this year is cut too low, or too sheer for my tastes or too ugly for my tastes.

There is a war out there against hetero men, I believe. Tell them they can't learn by trying to teach them like girls, keep them sexually stimulated by having all the women prancing around in things that have no modesty, and attack them if they can't act like eunuchs except when given permission.

Seems like an unholy alliance between the feminist movement and the gay agenda to me, but maybe I'm either being paranoid, or just another factor in that bad dream that the modern world is turning into - and it isn't hard to catch the whiff of sulphur behind it all....

[Full Court]

Seems like an unholy alliance between the feminist movement and the gay agenda to me,

I totally agree. I was thinking the other day that even TV has gone from the A-Team to the Gay team. Men can't be men any more.

[Liberal Bob]

There are many home schoolers out there that are not Christian. They home school for a number of reasons including that the local schools don't teach and they don't want to see their kids shot during lunch.

There are not a lot of home schooling associations out there for them to attend so they will probably jump at the opportunity to attend anything that can give them a few pointers.

It is a good chance to let Christ light shine. You never know who or how the Spirit will introduce Himself.

[Tired of Taxes]

Thanks for the ping, Full Court.

Liberal Bob,

That's possible. Then again, I've met homeschoolers who dress more scantily but they are Christians, instructing their children in their faith.

On the other hand, our own family is nonreligious, but I tend to cover up and my sons wear "normal" clothes, wherever we go. I try to be even more vigilant at Christian functions.

So, I don't think one can tell by outward appearance. Though, it's possible we're just exceptions to a rule...

[wmfights]

I have two boys 15 & 13 and I used to get even more "cranked up" about their appearance when they were younger. I'm convinced that some of this is kids just trying to assert their independence and individuality. Also, like most kids they want to "fit in". We solved some of this by sending them to single gender schools that have dress codes.

Bottom line as long as they don't look like "thugs" I'm easier on them. My main concern is all the subliminal messages in the youth culture that are anti-GOD.

[agrace]

The other day I went to walmsrt to look for a blouse. Almost everything this year is cut too low, or too sheer for my tastes or too ugly for my tastes.

Every year it gets harder and harder to find age-appropriate clothes for my almost 9 year old. And forget about dress shoes with no heels. We find them, but it's a struggle.

[Zuriel]

**..having all the women prancing around in things that have no modesty,..**

Yes, the young ladies not only want to dress like mature women, they want to dress like loose women. I hear it all the time in metropolitan areas on the CB, while driving. From up in the cab seeing the face of car drivers is not easy, but seeing what the car driver is wearing is.

Here's an instance I will share (not word for word, but close).
Once, while following a couple of 'good ol' boy' co-workers through our local city, one said to the other over the CB, "Check out what's driving the little black Honda coming up beside you, bud." (other comments not printable). 'Bud' (not his name), agrees, with other colorful comments. The one says to 'bud' at the next light (the Honda is stopped beside 'bud's truck), "Hey, 'bud', she's trying to wave at you now!" 'Bud' responds with, "(bleep), it my niece! I forgot she has her drivers license now!" I thought, "'bud', you should be really embarrassed right now". 'Bud' explained that the girl was only 16, but looked at least 20 or older.

My wife has a lovely figure. I'm glad she dresses modestly, wearing fairly long dresses and skirts that deprive the truckers from getting a view they desire.

I suggest that women that want to wear tight apparrel, and/or short shorts/skirts, but don't want to be seen by truckers, to keep a jacket in the vehicle to lay across their laps. By doing so, they might prevent an accident.

Years ago, one of our company drivers tailended a car at a light. He tried to claim he fell asleep, but pedestrian witnesses claimed he was looking in the car beside him, when the light turned red.

[LibertyGirl77]

I am all for modesty, but this guy is focused on all the wrong things. This article was a horrible Christian witness.

[Full Court]

I'm glad she dresses modestly, wearing fairly long dresses and skirts that deprive the truckers from getting a view they desire.

My niece is being raised in a non christian home. Last summer she came to stay a few days with me and we went to a local restaurant. She complained after we walked through the establishment that everyone was starring at her and that it was rude.

So I told her "Hope, if you don't want men looking at your body like that, don't expose it for them to see."

She had on very short shorts and a short tube top. More was showing than was covered.

[Full Court]

His article isn't directed at the unsaved, so please don't think of it as a Christian witness.

It's aimed at one particular group that by and large claims Christianity already.

[M. Thatcher]

Both were outside my “box” of appropriate Christian attire.

ROFL.

[Taliesan]

Modesty is a legitimate Chrsitian virtue, and is most often insulted by young women. As for the rest of this writer's hand-wringing, I don't discern any clue in the New Testament that Paul of Tarsus would have dressed or groomed himself differently than the rest of the crowd in the Areopagus.

[Zuriel]

I met my wife in a bar almost 29 yrs ago (we were God-fearing to a degree, but were not born again Christians). I didn't have a clue about her personality. I just saw a very beautiful, very sexy young woman, wearing tight form-fitting apparral. Yes, I first saw her as a sexual object, but after talking with her, I was attacted to her even more than any female I had previously met. We began dating. She was a virgin, and determined to stay that way until married. I was fortunate to find such a lady in a very worldly setting. We haven't gone to a bar in 24 yrs, and don't miss them at all.

Looking back, I can say that if a single woman dresses modestly (one can still have a pretty good idea if she has a decent figure, if that is important), she can have a better chance of attacting males that are not 'one-dimensional'.

The obvious is: Live Godly in Christ Jesus, and things will 'fall into place'.

[Full Court]

That was a great testimony!!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

There is a problem today where people forget (or want to pretend away) that if you don't want to be looked at, don't dress in the way that is guaranteed to get you looked at.

They also like to pretend away the reality that if you cause another to sin by your actions, you bear guilt for that sin.

(in a day where nobody likes to accept the consequences of their actions, that is a very unPC thought.)

[Full Court]

I do feel sorry for my niece though, she really hasn't been raised to believe any differently. Her mom has even posed in Playboy.