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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

modesty and discernment

Modesty is a large issue in our generation's culture. Questions are constantly being raised about what is right or wrong to wear, Judgments are always being made about contextual clothing, and people are constantly getting hurt.
The only thing that sticks out to me in that previous sentence is the fact that people are constantly getting hurt. There is no longer a fine line between chiding and rebuking, and it causes confusion among the masses that make up the young women of America.
One question that specifically comes to mind is the issue of wearing two piece bathing suits, or bikinis at the beach or another swim setting. Christian churches across America remind their teenagers to not cause teenage men to stumble by parading around in arousing clothing, but are we not also causing those same women to feel uneasy about their own bodies and temples that the Holy Spirit resides in? We have been stuffed full of images and media that portrays women a certain way and that if you are unable to achieve the "norm" you do not deserve to wear a two piece. The message that the church is sending is agreeing with that stimulus, albeit subconsciously. They are failing to recognize that women are beautiful creatures and that we are shaped differently than men; why then are we called to a standard that requires us to hide our beauty talked about and revered in Psalm 139? Now- by embracing our bodies and womanhood I do not mean that we should consciously allow ourselves to use a contextual piece of clothing to attract sexual attention. I simply do not understand why the church blames women for the bodies that God has given us, no matter what it looks like.
In this issue, I call upon the reason and discernment that God himself has given us. We should be allowed the choice to love ourselves first- before conforming to a standard that those who cannot control themselves have thrown us in.