Would You Dress to Impress God?

This is a post for women of God. Women who want to serve God and live a life for Him. Women who want to give up anything He requires of you and make changes in life, even when they're uncomfortable or unpopular. The point of this blog post is to get the gears turning in your mind. To get you thinking about how your clothing represents yourself - and more importantly, God - to the rest of the world. Is there a difference between the non-Christians and you? Do you cover areas that need to be covered? Do you bare it all because you can and you want to? Are you causing men to lust after you because of what you put on today? "I dress for myself, not anyone else." Well good, I'm glad. But instead of that, how about you dress for God? Why not dress as the daughter of a King? As the temple of God? As someone God treasures? How can He be represented in your life and shared by you when you act and look like those who don’t follow Christ? Or when people are looking at your appearance and not listening to your words/your heart? "Well that's not my fault if they look."

Technically you could be right. Some friends and I used to go do homeless ministry at a busy club scene area and we would bring food to the homeless and pray with them. No matter what we wore (sweatpants, blue jeans, sweatshirts, etc.) guys were still making comments about myself and the other girl in our group. It's unavoidable because lust is such a huge issue today. Men are pigs. But what about that man who isn't a pig and he's struggling? What about your brother in Christ who can't get victory in his battle with lust due to the accessibility of porn? Or the outfits that women wear everywhere he goes? What if it's his most earnest prayer every night that he would win that battle? Then you come in with cleavage showing or a skirt that's a little too short and it tears down all his progress and the struggle resumes?

None of us are perfect. Clothes shopping for modest attire is difficult today, especially if you want to be fashionable or not pay huge sums of money on those modest clothing websites - I don't know about you but I can’t afford $50+ for one dress. I look at thrift stores and the occasionally at modest online clothing websites in the clearance section.

It's trial and error and it takes time to build a new wardrobe. There's no cookie cutter model of modesty. But there are rights and wrongs. This isn't to condemn but more to provoke thought. Think on your wardrobe- what you wear to church, school, work, the beach, social events, and so on. Are your clothes something that represent yourself as the temple of God? Paul says: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." - 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Just think about how profound that is! The spirit of God dwells in you and you are holy. When God gave the requirements of how to build His original temple, there were no blue print plans to include walls decorated with women wearing crop tops. That would be absurd. Think about if even simply your church had revealing pictures on the walls, let alone the temple of God where He dwells. So if your body has become the current temple of God, think about this: how are you decorating God’s temple?

Remember when Moses spoke to God and his face glowed, and he had to cover his face from the people? (Exodus 34:29-35) What if in the same sort of way, when people looked at you they knew there was something different about you? I'm not telling you that you need to dress like a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness woman, but I will tell you that as you read that, you knew exactly what I was talking about. An image popped into your head of knee length skirts, higher necklines, and why? Because they focus on being set apart, a peculiar people, and that is their standard. They think appearances matter because they represent the King. Do I agree with many of their teachings? No. But do I respect their approach to modesty? I absolutely do. I don't wear skirts every day or dress in the same style that they do, but they definitely have a good basis for modesty.

Think about when hormones are raging the most. Nowadays boys start learning and realizing things about women's appearances at younger ages - late elementary school/early middle school. By that time, most boys are watching pornography and if they aren't, they're being pressured by friends to do so. By that time, they stare at girls and women as they walk by because it's a whole new world for them, and nobody will tell them it's wrong. Why can’t we dress better for these young boys? These 10, 11, or 12 year olds? Why can’t we dress in a way to protect them so that they don't spiral into an addictive mess of lust?

"My clothing doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things."

You're right unfortunately, because the way our world is there's so much that they're exposed to that you just can’t control. There's countless billboards, movies, songs, and TV shows that push this sexual lifestyle. But here's the thing- God is not a generalizing God. He looks at the big picture, sure, but He's also looking straight at you and at your influence in a situation. He's looking at your particular decisions when He judges you, not at anybody else's. Can we dress in a way to protect young boys from that mess? We can, and I highly recommend it. Lust is a sin (Matthew 5:28, 1 John 2:16), and Jesus spoke very strongly about causing children to sin.

"And he said to his disciples, "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin."

- Luke 17:1-2

I'm not sure if you're getting that but Jesus is saying that it would be better to die by drowning in the sea than to provide the temptation that causes a child to sin. What? Jesus said that? Yes. He's very straightforward about this and I think we need to listen.

I'm not telling you specifically what's right and wrong to wear. I don't have an answer for that and I'm not perfect at it myself - it's a journey for me. But when I wake up and pick my clothes out, I do the best that I can with what I have to make sure that the important things are covered so I don't have people seeing what they shouldn't. You won't have the cutest clothes with this approach, that's true. But you can know that you're doing the best you can with your attire to represent God.

Something to think about, and I hope you’ll pray about: if Jesus came back to this earth right now, no matter where you are - school, work, beach, social event, etc. - would you feel the need to grab the nearest blanket or towel to cover yourself up? Would you feel shame for what you’re showing? Could you face our Messiah with what you have on or what's in your wardrobe?