Perhaps Some Random Thoughts on Modesty

Joy at Stay-at-Home Missionary has hosted a great Modest Fashion Week.  Following the Friday post, she invited people to link with their own posts about modesty.  Mine is a bit late, but I thought it would be good for me and hopefully helpful to other people if I wrote a little bit about my journey to learning about true modesty, that it begins in the heart and it puts other people first.

I attended Christian school all my life.  From kindergarten through my senior year of college, I had to abide by a dress code.  Most of the time that didn't really bother me, but sometimes it was just plain annoying, especially the older that I got.  It wasn't so much that I wanted to go out and buy and wear clothes that would have been terribly breaking the dress code, but I didn't like having someone tell me what I could and couldn't wear.

Then one time in college there was a special meeting for all the girls.  Apparently there had been more dress code violations as of late, and the faculty and staff were trying to address the issue.  For some reason that meeting has stuck in my memory while other more enjoyable and fun things from college have faded away.  The point of the meeting was to tell the girls how their dress habits effected the young men on campus.  

Plenty of people have discussed this area of the topic already, so I'm not going to go into detail. (If you do want to read more about this, here's a really good post I read.)  My point is that up to that time in my life, I had not thought about how I dressed effecting anyone but me.

And now a random transition--isn't this really about everything in the Christian life?  I am to grow from thinking about how X effects just me, and seeing how it helps me fulfill or break the greatest commandments:  1)Love God with all my being, and 2)Love my neighbor as myself.

Ouch.  I don't think that I do this very well.  In my dress I hope that I'm doing all right.  Though when you have to wear this 7-8 months of the year, modesty when outdoors isn't always a problem. :)

But in my dress, in my conduct am I emptying CristyLynn of CristyLynn and being filled with the Spirit and having the mind of Christ?

I once heard a woman say that "a woman's clothes are her only way of truly expressing herself".  Perhaps then a woman's wardrobe is a really good place for a Christian woman to begin expressing who she is by dressing modestly and remembering that she at all times represents Christ and not herself.

Short and random thoughts, but hopefully helpful to someone.