Modesty; Our Outfits Reflect Our Hearts

We have all heard the phrase "Modest is hottest," right? But how many of us, not so much as believe it, but actually choose the contents of our closets based on it? Basically every girl's closet is important to her and she is proud of everything in it. But is God happy with it too?

I have been convicted in this area numerous times lately and it wasn't until this past weekend that I finally let God have control. By control I mean completely cleaning out my closet. I had certain outfits that I don't believe God would be pleased with me wearing. Not because it was an unacceptable outfit, but because it was unacceptable for me. Everyone has a different body type than the person next to them. What is modest on one person might not be modest on someone else. And if you haven't guessed it already..my height has a huge factor in that area. Dresses on some people might actually be a shirt on me. And it's always the cutest ones that are too short, right. But until now I would still buy those dresses. Throw some leggings on and it was okay to wear. Wrong. I saw a picture the other day that I thought was funny, but was really 100% true. "If leggings were pants guess what we would call them...pants." Yes I laughed. You probably did to. But how true is that. And I am completely guilty of following this "trend." Some people may be thinking "it's not big deal".."if you can pull it off then wear it." This is where our society has taken a terrible wrong turn.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am NOT seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved." 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

Do not cause anyone to stumble because we are not to seek OUR OWN GOOD but the good of OTHERS. So what does what I choose to wear for myself have to do with others? From a man's point a view the way a woman dresses plays a huge role in how they look at a her. I know guys think differently than girls and I'm not going to say I know exactly what goes thru their mind. But I have heard enough guy conversations about girls outfits that would make you sick. Ladies, if the outfits we choose to wear are for the sole purpose of getting guys attention, then we desperately need to examine our hearts and realize exactly what kind of guys we are attracting. And guys, if you are searching for a girl that flaunts her body with her clothes, then I pray you will examine your heart also.

The main point that sticks out in my mind when I think about girls refusing to dress modest has nothing to do with guys, but when girls try to out dress each other. According to the world, "if you got it, flaunt it, right?" No. But for some reason we would rather impress the girls that see us in passing rather than glorify the Lord that gave His life for us. Like it said in 1 Corinthians 10, "Do not cause anyone to stumble because we are not to seek OUR OWN GOOD but the good of OTHERS." If we wear an outfit, leggings for example. Yes we might have the body to wear them. Yes they might not look like a "bad" outfit choice in our eyes. But what about in the eyes of someone else. What about someone who can't "pull off" wearing leggings. How do you think they feel about us. Jealous, envious, insecure. And when they feel that way about themselves it was brought on because of what WE chose to wear. Maybe when we got dressed we were thinking about ourselves and how we looked, but I guarantee you the girl WE made feel insecure is struggling with her appearances hours after we have left her presence. I don't know about you but that breaks my heart. And part of that is because I know how that feels. I've felt jealous of other girls. Insecure about myself because I didn't look the way another girl did. And it is always based on the way we dress!
-1 Corinthians 10:33 from the message, "I try my best to be considerate of EVERYONE'S feelings in all these matters; I hope you will too."

"Your beauty should NOT come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your INNER self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:3-4

INNER beauty. Our heart. The way we dress and present ourselves should directly reflect our heart for God. I do believe modesty is a heart issue. If you are truly seeking God in all you do, then you wouldn't think twice about wearing an outfit that would make another girl feel insecure about herself or a man lust after you. We are children of God.

"I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God." 1 Timothy 2:9-10

APPROPRIATE FOR WOMEN WHO PROFESS TO WORSHIP GOD. I can't express this to you enough. If we are born again, if we are children of the King of kings, if we say we love God...then live it out not only in what we say but how we present ourself. The way you dress when you go to church on a Sunday or Wednesday should not be any different than any other day of the week. If you wouldn't wear it on a Sunday morning then DON'T wear it on a Saturday night

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."Proverbs 31:30

Your beauty will fade, and all the self praise you give yourself now concerning how you look and the things you wear will mean nothing when your life here is over.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

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Heart > Appearance

Why are we so judgmental? We, as a whole. The entire human race feeds off the flaws and imperfections of other people. I just want to know why. This isn't an ordinary blog I'm writing to encourage you to improve in a certain area of your life. I'm not sitting in front of my journal rereading old entries about what to write about for a blog. I'm just honestly tired of this constant battle. Why do we place SO MUCH emphasis on what other people think about us. I, personally, struggle with this every single day. I catch myself all the time saying "I just have zero confidence." As a Christian this should never be my response. EVER. But like clockwork someone says something to me about my outfit or what I was doing and my self esteem goes from 0 to negative 50 in seconds. And I'm sure I'm not the only girl that feels this way. But if I am that's completely fine too because it's a horrible feeling.
Here lately I have become so sensitive to comments girls make about each other. I've literally had to stop myself from staring blankly into the face of girls having conversations with each other around me. Like what joy does it bring us to bring others down? It drives me insane when girls "creep" on social media just to run to their friends and talk about what they saw. The way I look at that is one of two ways..it's either out of jealousy or envy.

Envy is the emotion when you want something that someone else has.

Jealousy is the emotion when you fear something or someone might be taken away from you. (Something could be as much as taking the spot light off of you and having it for themselves.)

If you are a born again Christian, and some of you might not be (if this is the case please talk to me about this because everything I'm about to say can pertain to you too), but if you are then there is no room in our hearts for this emotion. When we gave our lives to Christ, we received His spirit inside of us. He now lives IN us. The negative thoughts we have about ourselves and toward other people are not from our living God within us. They are strictly from satan. And satan does not control us unless we surrender our control to Him. The bottom line is, if you are not living for God and glorifying Him..then you are living for satan. Which lifestyle do you want to have to own up to the day Jesus comes back? My main point for this entire blog is to be loving, to love every single person you come into contact with as if they are fighting the same battle you are. And as a girl, there is a great chance we are all fighting the same battle or have at some point in our lives. Love Jesus love others right? Show love even when it's hard. Even when your by yourself and a negative thought about someone crosses your mind. In Jesus name get rid of that thought. (2 Corinthians 10:5.."and we take captive EVERY thought to make it obedient to Christ.") What goes through our mind on a daily basis is going to reflect into how we live our lives. Thank about Jesus and live like He did.


Love y'all!

Your Heart is a Treasure

Purity. To many people purity is from a physical point of view. Even though that is true, a form of it that really attacks me is the emotional side of it. Purity defines who we are on the inside. It's the beauty inside of us growing every single day. As a girl, I know the longing we have to be with that one guy for the rest of our lives. The one guy who will love us unconditionally. To fully submit to one man until death do us part. But what are we doing right at this moment to save ourselves for THAT special one? A book that I was reading a few weeks ago talked about how we go through the whole dating thing..giving little pieces of our hearts to every guy we pour ourselves into. And then telling ourselves that the pain of a breakup was just a "natural course" of life. Wrong. That pain is something God NEVER intended for us to experience. The way I see it, if we continue to give parts of our hearts to different guys, how much will we actually have left to give to our husbands when God brings them into our lives? That scares me to death. The fact that I could have feelings for a guy right now with zero intentions of marriage KNOWING I am robbing my husband from having my entire heart seriously makes me sick. Proverbs 31:12 says "She brings him good, not harm, ALL THE DAYS of her life." All the days. Every single day. Not just when y'all meet, but right now. Speaking for myself, this it not easy to live out. I've dated the bad guys, hung out with the wrong crowd. At the time it never seemed wrong to me. I never thought about how my future husband would feel if he knew where I was right at that moment or who I was hanging out with. I honestly just thought that since i was in love with Jesus and I wasn't going back to my old ways then it didn't matter who I spent my time with. I couldn't have been more wrong. The devil knows our weaknesses. He knows small lies to tell us that will eventually consume our minds. Philippians 2:21 says "For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." Like whose interests have i been going after? It hasn't been until recently I've realized that those pointless "friendships" I have are nothing more than stepping stones pulling me out of God's will for my life. I know a lot of girls, including myself, that would rather have guy friends for many reasons, and I agree with this for the majority. But my problem wasn't having too many guy friends, but having too many guy friends who didn't know or refused to know the only man I should be chasing after, Jesus Christ. For me personally and all you who read this i just want you to know its time we stop settling for relationships. Stop dropping our standards for the moment, and start thinking about what God has in store for us in the future. He wants us to wait, wait for His plan and stop crushing our purity because we live how we want to and not surrendering ourselves to Him. Jesus paid for the treasure of our hearts with his own blood, who are we not to give it to Him?

"You are a daughter of the King, so hold out for a man who has royal blood coursing through his veins."

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11