Hi! My name is Cryssie and I am a Christian woman! I'm not just a Christian woman but I am a Christian woman that truly desires to please my Heavenly Father! I want to please Him with everything in my life; how I speak, walk, what I eat, my intentions and yes, even how I dress.
The first thing people see when they look at me is not whether I have a good heart or if I love the Lord with all of my heart and soul but they see how I am dressed. The first glimpse of how much or how little I honor God is in my honor to Him with my outside appearance. Like it or not ladies, this is truth.
I think some people feel like God might not care how we dress and that's partly true. He really doesn't care about the latest fashion trend but scripture tells us that He does care about modesty. I believe that it hurts our amazing Father when the way we are dressed opens the door for lust in a man's mind. Do I think it's a woman's fault if a man looks at her in a lustful way, no of course not. We are only in control of our own sin and our own choices. Yes, it's true that a man should be able to control his own thoughts and mind and the responsibility is his and his alone but scripture also teaches us that as brothers and sisters in Christ that we are not to help our brothers and sisters stumble.
"But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak." 1 Corinthians 8:9
Modesty is a form of worshiping our Father and I believe this whole heartedly. It's also an indication of where our heart really is and if we are sensitive to sin. I think this is also true for how we show love to our brothers and sisters. Especially in the church setting. As women, we should be asking ourselves if the way we are dressed is allowing all of a man's attention to be on God. Could a short tight skirt take the attention off of God, of course it could. We are all sinners and we have to look out for our brothers knowing that our way of dress could totally be taking the attention off of God and onto ourselves and causing a brother to stumble by an act of lust. There are also young eyes out there watching older Godly women. It's time we start asking ourselves, "what is my behavior teaching the younger generation?" A heart of modesty is motivated by a love for her Father and for her brothers and sisters in Christ.
“I desire…that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.“ 1 Timothy 2:8-10
In this scripture Paul is teaching us that women should adorn ourselves in a respectable way. I like how he uses the word "respectable". As Christian women, we should be respecting ourselves with how we dress and how we behave. The way we carry ourselves should reflect that of modesty and self-control.
Let modesty be an act of the heart and an act of love. God may not care about what the latest fashion trend is but He truly does care about how we see ourselves. My challenge for you each day is to ask yourself these four questions before you leave your home:
1. Is my outfit honoring God and others by showing that I honor my body?
2. Could my outfit cause a man to stumble today? Am I showing too much leg? Is it too tight? And if you ever put something on and have no idea if it is appropriate, if you are married ask your husband or if you are single or hubby isn't home, take snapshot of it on your phone and send it to a trusted Godly friend and ask her. Have an accountability partner for this specific thing.
3. Does my outfit tell God and others that I adorn and respect myself?
4. Is my outfit teaching younger ladies that modesty is beauty?
I will close with this awesome defination of modesty by Luke Gilkerson, "modesty is a respectable manner of adorning one’s body and carrying oneself, born out of a freedom from a worldly definition of beauty and worth, and motivated by a hatred of sin and a desire to draw attention to God."
