Impressions We Make

By the time I’m through with writing this, most of you will probably be ready to kill me, but that’s okay. Today I’m straying from my regular types of posts and talking about modesty. Girls, this one is for you. Guys…go throw something around in the yard.

I’m not talking about modesty in the sense of “cover that up, and lengthen that out, and loosen that area- it’s too tight.” We all know that pretty well, and it’s hard to argue with the verses in the Bible that talk about this type of modesty directly.

But the type of modesty I want to talk about is more of an attitude, and an area that I have really struggled with.

Now before I go too far, let me just say that I’m not saying everyone needs to wear floor length gray dresses, with their hair down and no cosmetics or jewelry whatsoever. That’s just silly and I don’t think the Bible promotes that.

But there are some clothes-though technically modest when it comes to coverage and whatnot- that can be immodest by the attitude they portray.

Because I’m a little more of a crazy kid, I’m going to use the punk, gothic, rocker type look. I’m not sure what exactly it’s officially called, but if you type any of those words into pinterest you get pretty much the same style of clothes all three times. I like the arm warmers, and the corset style lacings on everything, and the black and bright colors, and the crazy hair and makeup. I like that stuff and always have. Which has caused problems between me and my dad because he doesn’t look at the fact that, yes, my body is covered up the way it is supposed to be. He looks at the fact that almost everyone else he sees wearing those types of clothes (singers, actors, etc.) are not living a Godly lifestyle. They are doing drugs, and drinking, and living immorally. So even though I’m covered, those types of clothes make him (and other people) think about those types of people, and it gives an immodest impression. See what I mean?

This has been a hard reality for me to swallow, but I actually do have to agree with it. Now I’m not saying that you can’t wear arm warmers, or have a lace up purse, or wear leggings. I’m not saying that. But I think if you wear all of that, plus dye your hair purple and get it chopped off in some crazy cut and wear makeup like a raccoon…yeah. That could be a problem.

        Now clothes do not make the lifestyle. Just because I wear eyeliner doesn’t make me Goth

                                                    But lifestyles do make clothes.
                                                                   Ever notice that?
Go look at your typical gangster/wangster. They all pretty much dress alike right? Baggy pants, flat brimmed hats, probably have some tattoos and piercings. Right? When we see someone in walmart dressed like that, we label them as a wangster. Do we know they are for sure? No. But do their clothes give that impression? You bet.

                                                  It’s the same way with the way we dress.

We may not be consciously asking for attention, and saying “look at me! I’m different!”. We may not be thinking, “I want to look sexy”, “I want to look cool” or anything like that. But if we wear the types of clothes that people who are trying to convey those messages wear, then we are conveying those messages.

Step over to the makeup and tattoo department with me for some examples. I love to wear makeup. It kind of drives my dad crazy because he’s more of the type to think natural is prettier. And I’ll agree to a certain extent because there are different styles of makeup. Most women you see are wearing makeup, and yes, they look nice, but that just it. They’re wearing makeup. And then there’s those women where you’re like “Holy Guacamole did I miss the Halloween party?” It draws attention. And I find that in general, the type of attention it draws isn’t the good kind of attention.

Consider the Bible verse-

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;1 Peter 3:3 KJV

He’s talking about hair, and accessories. He didn’t even mention cleavage, and skin tight pants. Those ‘little’ aspects of our wardrobe play a part. We may think we’re just wearing a different style of eye shadow, but our Christian guys at youth group might start thinking it looks smoking hot. And then the mind wanders. We do a favor to ourselves and the men around us when we promote a modest attitude.

I’ll use tattoos as another example. I know lots of people throw around the “make no mark on your body” verse and I think that’s probably a good reason to stay away from tattoo’s, but I will agree that it is talking about making marks for the dead, and a lot of people think that puts tattoos in the safe area.

But what about this verse.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV

That says stay away from all appearance of evil. If we’re totally honest with ourselves, we should come to the conclusion that tattoos do have the appearance of evil. Go google tattoos if you don’t believe me. Sure, there’s some tiny little words, or a cute dolphin, but there’s also inappropriate images and words. And even if the tattoo itself isn’t evil, take a look at whose wearing it. I’ll bet you 9 out of 10 people you see there are pretty darn scary huh? Would you want to hang out with them? Be in a car with them? Meet them out on the street? I doubt it. It gives the appearance of evil. And we’re supposed to stay away from that.

As Christians, sometimes we like to say “I am a Christian, I just like to wear this, say this, be this, etc.” But the truth is, we are Christians. Little Christs. We’re not supposed to look like any of that other stuff. It’s of the world. We’re supposed to look like Christ. We’re not supposed to look like we’re Christians who wish they weren’t. Like we’re Christians who want to go to heaven but keep all the other stuff the world has to offer. When we start modeling aspects of our life, such as our wardrobe, after the world, it takes away from our testimony. For some reason people who aren’t saved sure do know a lot about the Bible. They know we’re supposed to be modest. And when they see us dressing like them, they notice. And they think our faith doesn’t matter. I know you’ve heard it thousands of times before, but what we wear really does matter, and it’s the little things that maybe matter most of all.