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4.18.2011

Day 3 & 4: Mothers and Sons

This dress-top actually has lots of feminine
details made impossible to see due to blurry
photography (my fault) and baby crying.
First of all, (dear husband), I did not cheat. My husband accused me of cheating by wearing this on day 3, but as I told him, I never said I would only wear dresses/skirts. I said I would be dressing more femininely and that I did believe pants could be feminine. He likes to tease me. But, technically this is a dress. I bought it on sale at Old Navy a couple years back for like $3. It was supposed to be a mini shirt dress, but I always wore pants under it. Yes, even mini skirts can sometimes be adapted to modest clothing. I've often found they make great tunic tops, because they do cover your behind (just make sure they aren't tight).
Another unexpected result of this has been my daughter has asked me to make her several play dresses as she has outgrown much of her summer wardrobe from last year. Mommy is going to try her best and oblige, just maybe not all at once.
I've been thinking about my son, and how I hope he sees his mommy. Modest dressing is not only a female issue, but as female immodesty can incite lust in men and lead them to sin, I think how they view modesty is a big deal. My husband has been very open with me about how men view women, and it's not just the young attractive ones, it's any of them dressed immodestly. Unfortunately, he's said many times women and girls at church are dressed immodestly and even in that setting it's difficult for men to not look.
Day 4: Why yes, that is Rainbow
Bright on my shirt ;)
"My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they [fn] will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress."-Proverbs 6:20-24
It's easy to see how feminine dressing could affect our daughters, but what about sons? 
Scripture says a mother's teaching can keep him from the adulterous woman one day. What does our dress teach our sons? If they see their mother's celebrating femininity in a godly and modest way, won't they desire to look for that in a wife? If they see her longing to make even the way she dresses a way to bring glory to God and to honor her husband, won't they long for such a wife? 
Day 4 take 2.  Quick change before company
came. I didn't want anyone to smell spit up.
I don't have all the answers, but I can't help but think that dressing in any way to honor God must leave our daughters and sons with the reality of God and of the importance of submitting to His Word, all of it. 
It comes down to two words: orthodoxy and orthopraxy. 
Most of us know what orthodoxy is. It's what we say we believe of the Scriptures. But orthopraxy is how we live that out. To be a hypocrite, for example, is for your orthodoxy to not line up with your orthopraxy. 
For me, reconsidering how I dress is one more way to show my family and the world that I really believe what I say I believe, but most of all to honor God by a willingness to submit in this part of my life. 
So, what does your dress say to others?