A Lesson In Modesty

I recently went to the Gateway Conference in Texas, at none other than... Gateway Church. It was an absolutely God-given experience for me. Among the number of lessons and soul freeing and filling times in worship and God's glorious presence, I think I picked up one lesson without even really thinking about it: Modesty.

If you've ever seen how some of their female worship leaders dress... there's no other way to describe it than maybe skinny jeans (not blue jean denim), a dress or long or loose tunic, and a jacket or something like that. It's an interesting style... I used to kind of poke fun at it, being that you could tell who all of their "followers" were by how they dressed, or if they wore a headband around their head instead of in their hair.

But the leaders kept talking about how they emphasized a specific dress code. Something along the lines of what their average attender (a business man or woman) would be able to respect and feel like they belong (they represent this not just with attire, but with age present!), and something modest. It was noted several times that it can be very distracting when (women, especially) on platforms are dressed with clothes that show more or are tighter than necessary.

This got me thinking about what I wear and what may or may not be appropriate.

Of course, I was lectured in modesty as a teen/young adult, so I have my own standards of modesty: no low cut tops, and generally dresses to the knee or below, I felt challenged to go even further with it. Actually, I was a little grossed out, to think that while I was lifting my entire self to God in worship and leading others in worship, was there someone that may be distracted by what I was wearing? I'm not talking about thinking to themselves, "what is she wearing?" but is what I'm wearing too tight or anything other than glorifying and pointing to God? I don't want a guy to look at me and think "gross" or "good looking".

And so, I began to rethink what I wear and how I appear to other people. Specifically, something I notice for ladies my age and younger is... how tight are your clothes? You may be covered up but if your clothes are hugging your body are you really covering anything up? I know it's normal today to wear tightly fitted clothing, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's not okay.

It's not for everyone, but it's for me. So as I think of friends of mine who want to be modest in their dress, and how we should be more challenge to rethink the why of what we're wearing something. You're beautiful, regardless of what you wear (now don't go crazy here, there is a style standard too), but if you're going to be distracting from God or just ... just something, then maybe it's time to have a heart talk with yourself! Maybe it's out of respect for God, for my husband, or for the wives of the men I work with and lead on Sundays, I did. And I'm working through specific efforts to be modest and stylish beyond my skinny jeans and fitted shirts. And I feel pretty good about it (even if I do look like one of those worship leaders now) :).

Also, I just heard a commercial for the musical Wicked and the vocals were sadly not up to par :/.

So long, farewell!
Lindsay