Shopping
Last night Rachel and I headed over the border for some clothes shopping for her. We had such a great time talking and looking for things for her to try on. We did really well with finding things for her, but it does take some time to sort through all the options. One area we did not do well in was looking for shorts. The shorts we did see were ridiculously short – as in Daisy Duke short.
We went to a lot of different stores, hopeful each time we entered. There's just so much wading to do through a sea of inappopriate, immodest or just downright unattractive apparel. Sometimes things looked great on the hanger and not so great on Rachel and other times, it was the opposite. Put the right pieces together and they looked fantastic.
Rachel and Ben and I have been getting more involved with Skit Planet. Right now, they are writing and filming segments for an upcoming DVD series for teen girls called Girl Reflected: Seeing yourself through God's eyes (watch the intro but you can't order anything yet – still in the works!) It's an amazing opportunity for Rachel as she will be a big part of this – covering topics such as Beauty, Forgiveness, Modesty/Purity, Gossip, Guys, etc. The series will come complete with Study Guide questions for youth leaders or parents. I'm so excited that we get to be a part of this!
I got to thinking last night that if you shop around, eventually you can just pay some money and look great. It takes work to find just the right items, but it's a fairly easy thing to do if you have the time and funds.
Because of this DVD series and being involved in the writing, my mind wandered to the fact that developing godly character (or how we dress our hearts) should really not be a hard thing. It should be easy. After all, we don't have to shop around at all and we don't have to pay anything. We just open up the mirror of God's Word, see our reflection and what changes need to be made, and we change, right? It really should be that simple. But it just seems like so much work! We are looking for the simple solutions – the ones where we just slap some money down on the counter and we are done.
Or maybe sometimes we know that what we see in the Bible is the "practical thing to wear" but we feel drawn to something else that is "brighter" or will make us "sexier". We might look into God's Word and say, " Oh I'm not wearing that old thing". Our eyes and hearts may be drawn away from the godly characteristics in order to be popular with friends or even people we don't know.
I am all for looking great on the outside. And I totally get that Christian girls are as concerned about their appearances as anyone. There's nothing wrong with that at all. God made us with a desire to be beautiful. But let's encourage all of our kids to reflect Christ and to put the utmost importance on how they care for their hearts first. Let's also do the same. Then we will be like Esther, the winner of the biggest beauty pageant of all time. Beautiful on the outside and gorgeous on the inside as well!
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I totally agree!! Our young people are bombarded by inappropriateness from every level. We must teach them about Biblical modesty and purity. Too many are falling into the ways of the world all for the sake of "fashion". Keep up the good work and we're looking forward to this DVD study.
Hey Kari,
Not sure if you or Jeff and your older kids are coming to the Why We Web conference, but we hope to have our first dvds for sale there. I will let you know progress.
Great post sher! It is such a blessing to get to work with our teens on these projects for SkitPlanet. They are such an amazing group of young people who all have so much talent and are all amazing and unique in so many different ways!
Glad you and Rach had such a great time shopping together, I know it was an awesome time for both of you!
Hey Sher. I loved the post. As a follow-up are there any great books on this subject for tween or teen girls to read? It is a challenge to answer normal teen comments such as "it is the style", "that is what everyone is wearing" or more naive comments like "well the guys will look anyway". Maybe you or other readers have a good and updated book on modesty and why for girls? Good for moms that will engage their daughters in the battle for inward and outward beauty God's way! I had a younger friend share her frustration of looking in a ton of stores, but she finally found some modest shorts. Stick with it and put the time in. God is honored that Rachel would put extra time in to please Him.
Hey Gin,
I don't have any books on just the modesty and purity topics alone, but I purchased Elizabeth George's A Young Woman After God's Own Heart so I hope to take a look at that soon and review it.