Going to a church dance tonight :) I'm very excited. It has be too long since I have seen many of the people at this church, and I hope to see a few of them tonight. I'll be going over early, due to some driving problems, but I'm glad for the opportunity to help out. Hopefully I'll be setting tables or decorating, so I don't get tomato sauce all over my outfit (which I'm sure I'd do if I was helping out in the kitchen) Not after I spent so long getting ready.
I feel more dressed up now than I have in a long time. Nails done, hair treated and curled, perfume and earrings on, full makeup (minus blush). It fascinates me to remember that I did all that every day in high school. Where did I get the time and energy? And more importantly, how low must my self-esteem have been to need to put so much effort into my appearance?
I read a very sad letter in the Citizen today. It showed a girl barely dressed, with low-rider jeans, a belly top (pulled up even more, for effect) and a belly ring. This girl was complaining about dress codes in her school, insisting that how she dressed had no impact on her ability to learn, and that, besides, the only clothes she could find in any stores were of the variety that she was displaying. Many other excuses peppered the letter, such as how her dryer would shrink her clothes and the fact that teens have to work (gasp!) to get money to pay for fashionable clothes. I'm not really sure I followed her line of logic, it seemed to skip around like a mismash of jumbled thoughts.
While I sympathize with her assertion that many stores sell mostly the type of clothing that schools don't allow, it does not follow that schools should permit that type of clothing. School are places of learning, and like it or not, revealing clothing does distract males. I'm not trying to stereotype here: I have had many good guy friends admit that when they see a girl whose clothing protrays her as a sex object, they see her as such. While that fact certainly does not give guys the right to take advantage of girls dressed less modestly (I shudder at the phrase "she was asking for it" ... no women ever asks to be raped) it does mean that women should take care in how they present themselves. And that goes for teenage girls too.
I used to rebel against the dress code. I can't count how many times I went to school wearing tank tops. Some were more decent than others, but in all cases I was disobeying the rules. I had no respect for my body, and my self-esteem was dependent on what others thought of me. So I tried to follow the fashions (though I was never very good at it) and flaunted my body to get attention. Such is the path to emptiness. Praise God for my new perspective.
True freedom is not worrying about other people accepting or rejecting you based on your appearance. It does not require the latest fashions or a pierced body part to assert that you are special. OTOH, it doesn't mean that you can't take care with how you look, as long as you remember that it doesn't define you. Seek identity in Christ, and everything else will fall into place.
