What are your thoughts on modesty?

[Relic]

"Luke, [wheeze, wheeze] I am your father. [wheeze]"

: !!!!!!!!!!!!


Potato Vader!

You forget to put your pants on today!

How many times must I tell you to
put your pants on before you weezle yourself out the door? :

:roll:
.

 

[lovely]

I think there have been some good points made in this discussion. I would like to make a few more too.

First of all, I believe that the principal of doing all things in my life as unto the Lord is applicable to my clothing. I want to dress to please God first and foremost. I also believe that God instructs women to be modest, and it is for their protection that He does...and ultimately for His glory. So, while it may be subjective, it is primary for us to look in our hearts as God does, and do our best.

Secondly, I believe that in order to please God I should be obedient to the standard of dress that is desired by the head of our home...my father if I am a child, and my husband if I am a wife. I do not think that other men should be telling someone's wife, or daughters, what is acceptable as their families standard of modesty. However, if my husband, or father, is not a believer, and has given no instruction in this area...then, it is up to me to seek God's face on the matter.

Third, I do not think that we should attempt to judge the hearts of someone because they are dressed a certain way, even if it is quite immodest by most standards. God grows us according to His timing, and His plan. God will use the Holy Spirit in teaching, discussion, and preaching to minister to people on all matters of their lives...prayer for their eyes to be opened to this area is the best, unless we are in an authority position...such as with our daughter/son or family member in our charge, and even then we must be graceful. We must speak the truth, but in order, and with the prompting of the Holy Spirit.


As far as the pants vs dresses issue...that is up to the head of the home, and I do not believe should be mandated in any way by the church. I do not think we should judge women who wear only dresses as self-righteous, or legalistic...nor, do I believe we should judge women who wear pants as immodest, or breaking God's law. It is only in disobedience to the head of their home that they are in sin. I have known men who want their wives to wear pants, and some who want their wives to only wear dresses/skirts.

As far as modest actions, we should act as men and women of grace would, and conducting ourselves as a prince/princess of the King...an ambassador for Christ in every way. There are also character qualities, and fruits of the Spirit, that go hand and hand with all of this...as well as commands like loving leadership, submission, hospitality, and hard work in caring for family, church family, and friends. We can never be perfect, but we can do our best to love, be kind, be graceful and discreet, to be meek, and hospitiable...seeing our feminity, and lady-like attributes as part of our ministry for God, and for men masculinity, and gentlemen-like attributes in the same manner.

I hope whatever our standards are that we are just simply seeking everyday to glorify God, and please Him in all we do in every area of our lives.

The Lord bless you all.

And Destiny thank you for your kind, and encouraging words.

 

[wavy]

So, while it may be subjective, it is primary for us to look in our hearts as God does, and do our best.

I am of the opinion that we look to his word. Good intentions don't get the job done. I cannot remember which book it is (completely left my mind, haven't read it in so long) but I remember when the Levites were carrying the ark with it's covering and it fell.

Yahweh told it not to be touched, yet one man felt it necessary to reach out and grab it. Good intentions? No doubt. He didn't want the ark to fall.

Still disobedience? Yes. The man fell dead.

The head of the home could be in error, also.

 

[destiny]

I will say that the longer I am in relationship with Jesus, the more He exposes the motivation of my heart.
He's not so much interested in the 'what', as He is the 'WHY'. He searches the inmost parts of our hearts, He see's the motivation behind our actions that no one else can see.
He knows if we are seeking to bring glory to ourselves instead of Him.
God is a 'consuming fire', he will eventually consume everything in our lives that is birthed from our own pride, he will call what we once got away with to the forfront and deal with it as we mature in Him.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and (die), it abideth alone: but if it (die), it bringeth forth much fruit."

Our life can't be to our own glory, but to His. The hardest thing in the world is to 'die' and give up (my) glory.

 

[antitox]

I agree there are people that are going to be lustful no matter what.

All I am saying is that men and women should not dress in a lewd manner.

I don't believe people when they say that they have no idea what that means.

Anyway I have given my thoughts in this thread.

True. We used to have a team of women doing tamborine dance worship in the front aisles during worship and it was so worship-inspiring and I loved it because it spurred me on in worship. It stirred the heart to begin worshipping. This was good to urge people to get into the Spirit of worship when the service started.
These women wore dresses all the way down to their ankles. Nothing whatsoever to cause any lust in any way- their dresses were not tight or anything. Well some guy notified the pastor that he lusted after one of the women. I know who she was and yes, she was pretty, but it didn't make sense that a guy would have been fired up over any of them by the godly way it was all done. It just didn't exude anything other than godliness in worship.
This guy had a passion for one particular woman and he had a real problem with lust, and it consumed him. Well, as a result, the pastor removed that worship team completely. All over ONE GUY's complaint. The church was robbed of a very inspiring worship team. This was wrong. Eventually, some of the team left the church. It's hard when you feel that your contribution has been rejected.

Yes, men are going to lust no matter what; they always have.

But I do agree that if one is dressed improperly, it will incite lust. That's what i think BB is pointing out.

 

[pfilmtech]

Keep lust in appropriote places

Like strip joints

I kid I kid :wink:

 

[Merry Menagerie]

You've made some excellent points. I agree...I mean, WHAT is modest? One poster up above thought long robes OVER pants was called for..sounds like Islamic dress to me. Would the 'hijab' head covering also be required?

If I wear a tank top in the summer, have I gone too far? What if I wear..*gasp*...a swimsuit at the beach? Whose rules should I go by?

What is lust-inducing to one, may not be to another. I had a man, once, practically beg me to remove my shoes....LOL! If I had been wearing flip-flops, it appears I would have been exposing enough to incite lust!

So, once again, we come back to trusting our Father to guide us through the Holy Spirit....and to not judge one another.

Oh Gosh that would be funny. Some guy asking to remove your shoes cos he got his jollies from feet. There we have it - bare feet is immodest now!!! Ha ha - what next?

 

[Merry Menagerie]

What then?

What if EVERYTHING that one wears provoked lust?

Potato sacks... ;-) .

Hey you never know...some men might get turned on by potato sacks ;)

 

[Featherbop]

If someone wants to stop lusting, then controlloing dress is not effective.

It seems to me that most people want to fix internal problems with external solutions.

 

[Asaph]

Sounds like a whole new ministry. The burlap sack ministry. We could travel from church to church handing out potato sacks to all the women who accidentally came to church that morning without getting dressed first. :D

 

[Hisgirl]

True. We used to have a team of women doing tamborine dance worship in the front aisles during worship and it was so worship-inspiring and I loved it because it spurred me on in worship. It stirred the heart to begin worshipping. This was good to urge people to get into the Spirit of worship when the service started.
These women wore dresses all the way down to their ankles. Nothing whatsoever to cause any lust in any way- their dresses were not tight or anything. Well some guy notified the pastor that he lusted after one of the women. I know who she was and yes, she was pretty, but it didn't make sense that a guy would have been fired up over any of them by the godly way it was all done. It just didn't exude anything other than godliness in worship.
This guy had a passion for one particular woman and he had a real problem with lust, and it consumed him. Well, as a result, the pastor removed that worship team completely. All over ONE GUY's complaint. The church was robbed of a very inspiring worship team. This was wrong. Eventually, some of the team left the church. It's hard when you feel that your contribution has been rejected.

Yes, men are going to lust no matter what; they always have.

But I do agree that if one is dressed improperly, it will incite lust. That's what i think BB is pointing out.

I wonder what would have happened if the guy had just approached the pastor, pointed out one particular woman in the choir and said he was having issues with lust because of her being on the stage. Would she have been removed? That was just outrageous! This type of behavior falls right into line with how the Muslims treat their women. I'm surprised the women in the church didn't raise Cain over that incident! I sure would have. :

 

[lovely]

Wavy wrote:

I am of the opinion that we look to his word. Good intentions don't get the job done. I cannot remember which book it is (completely left my mind, haven't read it in so long) but I remember when the Levites were carrying the ark with it's covering and it fell.

Yahweh told it not to be touched, yet one man felt it necessary to reach out and grab it. Good intentions? No doubt. He didn't want the ark to fall.

Still disobedience? Yes. The man fell dead.

The head of the home could be in error, also.

Wavy, you wrote this in response to my comment...

So, while it may be subjective, it is primary for us to look in our hearts as God does, and do our best.

I just want to clarify that I was not saying that we should be excused for not being obedient to God based on our good intentions. This is not what I meant by looking into our own hearts. God, not our hearts, is the truth alone, and the only determining factor in right or wrong. I was actually saying that God searches our hearts, and we should do that too...just as He does, concerning the issue of modesty, and where we are going to draw the line of standard. It should be our prayer, as was David's..."search my heart, O God." I am not speaking of good intentions, but rather a heart that is in submission to Him in loving obedience that dictates the action of obedience in our life. I am speaking of stricter obedience, and not merely skirting the issue in a half hearted attempt to please our LORD, but rather with a heart that desires to give all to Him. If you read my post, I was speaking in favor of being modest as God commands. The Lord bless you.

 

[wavy]

Then my apologies, lovely (such a lovely username).

But anyway, to everyone else, I didn't mean that if our clothing was changed lust would be completely eliminated...

But I meant a lot of it would cease if our clothing was changed. To say that lust would still exist and so it wouldn't matter is like saying we shouldn't have law since people are going to break it anyway.

 

[antitox]

True. We used to have a team of women doing tamborine dance worship in the front aisles during worship and it was so worship-inspiring and I loved it because it spurred me on in worship. It stirred the heart to begin worshipping. This was good to urge people to get into the Spirit of worship when the service started.
These women wore dresses all the way down to their ankles. Nothing whatsoever to cause any lust in any way- their dresses were not tight or anything. Well some guy notified the pastor that he lusted after one of the women. I know who she was and yes, she was pretty, but it didn't make sense that a guy would have been fired up over any of them by the godly way it was all done. It just didn't exude anything other than godliness in worship.
This guy had a passion for one particular woman and he had a real problem with lust, and it consumed him. Well, as a result, the pastor removed that worship team completely. All over ONE GUY's complaint. The church was robbed of a very inspiring worship team. This was wrong. Eventually, some of the team left the church. It's hard when you feel that your contribution has been rejected.

Yes, men are going to lust no matter what; they always have.

But I do agree that if one is dressed improperly, it will incite lust. That's what i think BB is pointing out.

I wonder what would have happened if the guy had just approached the pastor, pointed out one particular woman in the choir and said he was having issues with lust because of her being on the stage. Would she have been removed? That was just outrageous! This type of behavior falls right into line with how the Muslims treat their women. I'm surprised the women in the church didn't raise Cain over that incident! I sure would have. :

Usually, pastors keep things like this low-profile so that it doesn't cause a stir among the congregation. But we all know there's always an intelligence leak and people still find out secondhand.

I don't know why the pastor was skewed on this because he was known to be a reputable person, but humans will be humans and do things that rob the majority because there is something of politics/beauracracy involved. Robbing the masses for the sake of the few.

 

[greyfeather]

When it comes to modesty sometimes it does not matter what you are wearing or even how you may be acting. About 9 yrs. ago a young Amish girl was rapped near where I live , she was riding her bike and was run off the road and pulled into a car. She was latter found by a woman who was out walking her dog. Why this type of thing happens I beleive its just the evil in mens hearts, and has nothing to do with how a girl/women dresses , though I do think women should respect themselves enough to dress in a modest way.


Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

 

[another dave]

Inciting lust

I believe that inciting lust is a sin.


However some people would still lust if you wore a full robe inside of a card board box. :o


another dave >>> :-D

 

[SputnikBoy]

Re: Inciting lust

I believe that inciting lust is a sin.

Good point.

 

[Hisgirl]

Re: Inciting lust

I believe that inciting lust is a sin.


However some people would still lust if you wore a full robe inside of a card board box. :o


another dave >>> :-D

Hi Dave...You've made two strong statements here.

As a woman, I have spent my entire life fending off groping, lewd comments, obscene notes, and phone calls. Are you honestly going to say that because I was the object of lust...I was in sin?

These incidences were 'incited' by the fact I was female. I was not wearing short shorts, or spandex or a halter top. In fact, the last time a man approached me and began inappropriately flirting, I was wearing baggy army pants and a baggy t-shirt minding my own business....

There was a judge in Italy who made a ruling which said any man who raped a woman who had been wearing tight blue jeans, could not be charged with rape...because she had 'incited' the rape. Who was in sin here? The woman, the rapist or the Pharisaical judge?

 

[wavy]

The woman and the judge.

Anyway, that is not what he was saying. I'm sure he meant deliberately and consciously. You can't prevent what some people inevitably do, even if you are doing things correctly (making sure your body is no exposed).

 

[Hisgirl]

The woman and the judge.

Anyway, that is not what he was saying. I'm sure he meant deliberately and consciously. You can't prevent what some people inevitably do, even if you are doing things correctly (making sure your body is no exposed).

WHAAAAAT??? You DID see the word RAPIST, right? So are you one who believes a woman is responsible for male reactions to what she is wearing?

What about when I go swimming? Am I now doing things 'incorrectly' by exposing part of my body? The problem is in defining 'deliberately and consciously'. If I wear makeup, or put on a pretty pink sweater...I am doing it to appear attractive. But a man might see me and think 'Oooh La La!" Does that put me in sin or him?

Remember my story about the guy with the foot fetish? If I had worn flip-flops, which caused him to lust, would I have been in sin? How can I be responsible for someone else's out of control lust?