Seriously—you might get mad when you read this—I am sorry.
I recently came across a current picture of a woman whom I have been an acquaintance for a number of years on facebook. I was surprised to see her wearing a provocative dress and upon closer inspection realized there was evidence of some cosmetic surgery that the dress enhanced. I knew the woman had struggled with body image issues for years and the picture was evidence to me that this was still a prevalent issue in her life. I know that some of you are mentally accusing me of judging right now, but I want to challenge you to consider the evidence. This is a woman who is a Christian leader not a woman in the world and I must confess that I was hugely disappointed.
I have worked with jr. high girls for a number of years discussing issues of modesty appropriate for women who are followers of Christ and discussing the problem with trying to use our body to draw attention to ourselves and wear things that send inappropriate messages only to find a Godly woman leader wearing something that broke all the rules that my jr. high girls had established for themselves. I have to ask the question—is this spiritually mature for a leader?
I am not trying to be a prude, but what do you do what Peter writes to women in 1 Peter chapter 3? “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead 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. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear”.
Are we not giving way to fear when we dress in the way the world does to try to affirm physical beauty in ways that are feeding our own selfish/fleshly desires to be attractive? Is God glorified-- is it of great worth in God’s sight when we feed our fleshly desires and pursue vanity?
Every woman fights the battle to pursue beauty. I recently watched a video that said that Americans spend 18 billion dollars annually on make-up when 10 billion dollars would bring clean water to the world. I have to ask—is the pursuit of beauty a little out of balance? I have read of people getting tattoos to try to bridge a gap between themselves and unbelievers, but have never heard of women giving up make-up to identify with women who are not up on the latest fashion trends. I have never heard of women giving up shopping and wearing trendy clothes to identify with lower classes. Maybe we just do what we really want to do and use it as an excuse to do something spiritual.
Come on—let’s be real. None of us want to be ugly, but are we willing to be average in order to truly identify with where most of the world is at? Perhaps we should consider finding a place of acceptance and grieving that we cannot identify with those of the world who pursue beauty in an ungodly way and that will cost us something that we really like.
I like to “dress up” and look nice, but I also like to “dress down” and go without makeup. I have found that on days that I run around looking average, I find people much more engaging when I am in my unimpressive mode. Perhaps that is why Jesus was not so very attractive. Isaiah 53:2 tells us that “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire Him”. God didn’t give Jesus a Miss America gene array—He designed Him in a way that He would not be intimidating. Perhaps we as Godly women should model God’s pattern.
Am I dressing and using my physical appearance for myself and fulfilling the desires of my flesh to bring significance to myself or does my appearance and dress honor God?
