For only the 2nd time in as many years, we entertained last night at our home. This means a lot to me because my wife is very self conscious about the appearance of our home. She does a great job of keeping it looking great...I am very proud of her. She does however, have an issue of what other people think about our home.
You see, we live in a somewhat affluent town. The median income is something like $30,000 more than we make each year. When we lived in NC, we were above median income by 20K or so, but here we are below that median by roughly 30K. Since we are not at a level that is considered the median, we have a smaller (although well maintained) home. My wife lets that get to her. I know it is a female thing...women have values that are different than men. That is OK, because that only goes to show the wonder of God's plan for us. But, I digress.
We had our care group over last night for pizza/salad/fruit/cookies and a bible lesson. It was a wonderful gathering that my wife was comfortable with. The people are very non-judgmental and we tend to get along very well. The conversation flowed easily and there was rarely a time it lagged. Even though we come from all walks of life and from all over the US, we really have no problem finding things to talk about.
This morning I was pleased to find out that I did not miss part two of the modesty discussion on the Focus on the Family broadcast. I had feared that yesterday I missed part 2, but I found out they preempted that part to cover another issue. This made me happy because I am very much interested in what goes on with our youth. One of the coupled in our care group has a teenage daughter and I cannot help but think what she is going through today regarding issues of femininity and sexuality.
The focus today was modest dress and open communication. It is no secret that the average Christian wants their children to remain sexually pure until marriage. While many factors influence the decision to remain pure or "go with the flow" of the culture, modest dress is major one. Modesty does not just include how much skin is showing, but it also includes how mature the girl is dressing. I teen girl can be clothed from ankle to neck, but if that clothing is a sheer skin tight bodysuit...the amount of skin covered is irrelevant.
Mom's need to be involved with teen clothing choices. Showing too much skin or too many curves is an open door to poor behavior by teen boys and even poorer behavior by men with little or no self control.
One person who comes to mind that is careful about her manner of dress is AAA. She has made it a point to dress in such a way to be attractive (no, I am not a perv...men can admire beauty without being sexual about it) while maintaining modesty. IIRC, she tends to wear long dresses frequently and that speaks volumes about her character.
I respect women who watch their manner of dress...I see many women at our church who wear, tight, revealing, low cut clothing on Sunday. I feel embarrassed for their husbands. Short, tight skirts are common and I am a bit surprised that something is not being said about it. I am not being a prude, but since men have different wiring than women do, women are encouraging men to look at them. Of course, as men we don't help matters by only noticing women when they "dress to kill". I remember back before I married Mrs. Gee that I tended to notice the modest dressed women because they stood out in a crowd. You want to know what? I married one.
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