Missing the boat...

    I read a random blog post today that was floating around Facebook and it got my blood boiling. It was written from a former Lds members viewpoint on... 

Modesty. 


   Within the last couple of years, I feel like the topic of modesty in general has been completely twisted. I see posts all over social media about how "men just need to learn to control their thoughts" or "I'm going to be modest for me, not for boys" or even, "I dress for myself, I do not dress to impress others". The sad part? 99% of these posts are made from Lds members, whom I blindly assumed understood the principle of modesty. 

   So maybe I'm completely missing the boat here, or maybe the rest of the world is completely missing the boat. Either way, we're all definitely not on the same boat. When did the intent of modesty change? When did modesty change to something we blame the men on? When did being modest become degrading?

   Let me just dive right in and start by quoting this:

"Modesty is fundamental to being worthy of the spirit"                  (Elder Robert D. Hales)

    This statement is quite powerful to me. I 100% believe that it applies to both men and women. 

    When choosing to dress modestly your allegiance is not to others, your allegiance is to your Heavenly Father and the baptismal covenants that you made.

(Taking upon the name of Christ, standing as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places, serving God and keeping His commandments, etc.)

    When you truly understand that our bodies house our spirits and have the capacity to "bring souls from the presence of God to their mortal state", what more of a reason do you need to dress modestly without it being shameful?

    I think it's interesting that in the Garden of Eden the Lord taught Adam and Eve the importance of dressing appropriately. It was just the 2 of them! Do you think Eve felt the need to cover up so Adam would be able to keep his thoughts clean? Uh. No. I believe Eve fully understood that she was created in the image of God and that her body was something sacred and to treat it as such. 


                         



    There is NO SHAME in being modest. If you think so, you're doing it wrong. We dress for ourselves... in order to be worthy for the Spirit, but I also believe we DO dress modestly so that all those around us can be worthy of the Spirit as well.

  It's not fair of us to wear things that are inappropriate, regardless of gender, and make it that much harder for any thoughts to be controlled, and that much harder for the Spirit to strive within us or within a room. 

    I'm tired of living in such a feminist world where a beautiful thing like modesty is made into something shameful and degrading. Dress for God, not your own entitlement. Dress for worthiness of the Spirit in you and others. Dress in a way that reflects "who [you] are and what [you] want to be, both here in mortality and in the eternities that will follow".

    I know modesty goes beyond just dressing appropriately, and I probably could rant even longer. But there's my perspective and a few of my thoughts that I had pertaining to that statement Elder Hales said above. Nothing grand or fancy, I was just discouraged (and a little angry) after reading that floating blog post today. Sometimes I feel like I'm standing in a completely different boat with a completely different outlook than half of my friends and acquaintances. I don't know... I may be crazy, but at least I'm consistent!


https://www.lds.org/liahona/2008/08/modesty-reverence-for-the-lord?lang=eng