An article on modesty

I wrote this for our April church newsletter. No one has thrown anything at me yet...


It is spring once again. Time for warmer temperatures. Time to shed those sweaters and pull out the spring and summer clothes. Time for short shorts, tank tops, bikinis---wait a minute!!! What about modesty?

Modesty?? Have you been shopping lately? How can a person be modest these days? And modesty isn’t what it used to be. As long as your clothes are not as bare or as tight as the world’s standard, you are modest. Right??

What does the bible say? 1 Timothy 2:9 says “I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes (NLT). The key to this verse is not “don’t fix your hair or wear fancy clothes”. It is to not call attention to yourself through your outward appearance or put fashion before God.

Jesus said that if a man looks at a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery in his heart. Both 1 John and Romans tell us not to set “stumbling blocks before our brothers”. If you are accentuating certain body parts with your clothing, you are inviting people to look at those parts. Are you causing someone to stumble? The NLT version of 1 Peter 2:12 says “Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.”

In our over sexualized, over commercialized world, modesty can be hard. It is hard to find clothing even for little girls that is modest. It is also hard to ignore fashion. We don’t want to look frumpy and ugly! But it is important to think when we are shopping, or dressing—is this appropriate for a Christian? There are many rules out there about what may be considered modest—but the bible doesn’t have these rules. We do not have rules that say “no makeup, dresses only, dresses to the ankle”. And I do not believe any of those things. But people are so desensitized by the culture today that we do not even realize that we may be distracting or tempting others or mocking our own faith. We need to examine ourselves and ask—is this appropriate, am I trying to make people look at me, am I making it hard for a man NOT to look at me?? And we need to remember that modesty is not just for church services, it should be something we think of out in the world so we do not tarnish our witness for Jesus.

I like the definition of modesty that says “modesty is humility expressed in dress, a desire to serve others, neither promoting nor provoking sensuality or lust”. If our hearts are really modest, then our dress, speech, and attitudes will reflect that. We have a gospel mission to preach Christ and live in a way that is consistent with our profession of faith. It is true that “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16-7). God does care more about our heart than our appearance, but MAN looks at the outward appearance—we all judge each other by appearance, like it or not. So, this time of year, when we pull out those clothes for warmer weather, it may be time to ask ourselves if we are pleasing to God or are we trying to please man--or just ourselves.

Staying Home??

I am a stay at home mom. So why did I put 330 miles on my car this week? From Monday morning to Friday 4pm. It was not even an unusual week. Don't ever let anyone tell you a mom's life is boring....

Happy Easter!!!!

Spring Break

We took a trip this week while the kids had spring break. San Antonio. And I have lots of pictures to share.

Me being a wierd tourist....
The riverwalk... some of these are from our boat tour, some are walking along the riverwalk.




The RiverCenter mall...

Lots more to share but I need to put them in other posts.....

And our trip to Sea World

We enjoyed Sea World more than I thought we would. We even skipped alot of stuff. We went to Six Flags too, but we did not even take the camera in. And we did not have a very good time there because it was so crowded.

Sea World was cool though. See the faces...

It is not easy taking pictures of jumping fish! Ok so they are not exactly fish...so what.

Shamu!

St. Patrick's Day in San Antonio

These pictures are for Mom. Wish I could have gotten more. Wish you could have been with us Mom!

The Alamo

We visited the Alamo again. We had seen it 3 years ago. We visited again because B has been studying Texas history and the Alamo.



Just had to throw in this comparison of last visit with this one....



They are growing up too fast!!

Where we went to church on Sunday...

We planned our trip so we could visit this church!

It was very neat. And we may be on tv whenever it airs!

The sermon was very good. The church was huge. Very impressive. I was mesmerized by the tv screens showing what was going on live--but was going from one camera to another with such smooth transition. Also the brass band.

I was also impressed by the media center and all the stuff to transmit around the world. I know, I am such a hick...

After the service, John Hagee actually comes into a room with visitors and "greets" everyone. He did not personally speak to everyone and shake hands or anything--he could never have time to do that. BUT, L did speak to him and shake his hand.

We really enjoyed it.

And the most exciting part of our trip...

The bomb scare in Alamo Plaza.





We walked right past this "suspicious package" before we went into the Ripley's Haunted House without even paying any attention to it. But when we came out of the haunted house we were rushed away from the scene. The whole plaza was evacuated for about an hour.

It was a really big deal. As soon as we started walking away from the scene, they blew up the box. It scared me to death. I was not sure if the police did it or it was a real bomb. Of course L knew it wasn't real because of the sound--too small I guess. Thank God! We rushed back to see what was going on and soon it was over. Things cleared out and the news reporters were interviewing people.

And yes, B actually made it onto the news. Not being interviewed. Just a shot of her body behind someone else who was interviewed! But I SAW her!! And I would have been happy to post the link to the news story, but FOX did not see it necessary to post a video of the story. Oh well...

Lots of excitement. But thank God it was nothing. It turned out to be a box of trash. Here is one new story--without us in it...http://www.ksat.com/video/15623178/index.html

I could never be a teacher...

Today was Dr. Seuss day at E and K's school. I went to volunteer. I helped with the Hop with Pop station. The kids jumped on a little trampoline while reading rhyming words. They were in teams and raced each other. They loved it. I was worried to death that someone was going to fall off that little trampoline and get hurt. There were kids with flip flops, girls with little heels on (part of their Daisy costume I hope), and lots of cowboy boots(no costumes involved). No one fell, no one got hurt. Amazing.

I only took one picture. I wish I had gotten more because some of the costumes were fantastic. Several little girls actually managed the hairdo of Cindy Lou from the Grinch. There were more Thing One and Thing Two costumes than anything else. There were identical twins dressed as Thing One and Thing Two and they were adorable. But they were in different classrooms so I didn't get to see them together--that took a me few minutes of thinking--wait I just saw this Thing a little while ago!!! I thought I had seen so many kids I was going crazy!

I could never be a teacher. Not me. No way!




K came with me after her class was over and got to jump when things slowed down for lunch...

And during all the extra playtime outside, E had an accident on the playground. Someone came down the slide backward and crashed into him. After lunch, when we saw the pain was not going away, the nurse thought an x-ray would be a good idea. So instead of going to the army hospital, we drove 2 minutes to the tiny little hopsital in town. It was fantastic. We were in and out of there in less time than a regular dr's office visit for us. They were so nice and so NOT busy!! They probably spent more time taking the actual x-rays than all the rest of the time we spent in there! We made it out before school was even out for the day. No broken bones, just pain and bruising.

I LOVE the town they go to school in. I love the schools. Now I LOVE the hospital too!

Anyway....he is fine. Still hurts but not enough to stop him from playing outside right now.

And B has ANOTHER ear infection from her allergies. She says Texas is killing her and we need to go back to WV....

my girl...

Haven't posted lately. Nothing much going on. Just enjoying L being home and wishing he wasn't leaving again in May.

I was taking some pictures of K yesterday. She started being very silly because she wanted me to leave her alone so she could play dollhouse! Here are some pictures--and yes she has peanut butter on her face! :)

Last weekend we went to Austin shopping. I talked L into getting me some new kitchen chairs. He does not like them. He is keeping the old ones, hoping I will change my mind and he can take these back. What do you think????

Here is the old set. We had the old ones for almost 10 years. They were beat up pretty badly. And with all the moving they have been repaired several times. I just like the new ones much better. And they are not so country looking.

So let's have a vote. Which one do YOU like?? Leave me a comment....