Standards protect inward holiness!!!!!

[bdlooney]

I am so frustrated with people today!

Why is it that when anyone of our people (Ladies especially) hold up "traditional" standards of dress they are automatically deemed as unfashionable?

My good wife wears skirts well below her knees and she is extremely fashionable. She does not look frumpy, weird, old lady or anything!

She looks like a lady who is worshipping her God in the beauty of holiness. Just because she doesn't have a tug-of-war match with her skirt every service does not make her archaic!

And this is not about my wife. I am using her as an example.

And just who determines fashion anyway? Is it a Spirit filled, modesty loving person? I don't think so! So why do we attempt to measure up to them?

I remember a scripture that says We are in the world but not of the world!

Why is there an assault on the holiness loving people that uphold outward standards to protect inward holiness? And why are these assualts coming from those that once were apart of us?

If you want to be charismatic then be charismatic but please stop trying to shove your so called "liberty" down my throat!!!!

There I think my rant is over!

[MissBrattified]

Well, you certainly don't have to be immodest to look attractive or to be *gasp* fashionable. I'll agree with you there. IF that's what you're saying.

There IS, however, a problem with women not knowing how to dress themselves beautifully--but they probably dressed the same frumpy way when they weren't Christians! Not everyone gets style, or knows how to look like Audrey Hepburn Goes To Church.

Folks should look around: There are plenty of stuffy frumpy women at the mall, at Target, at Marie Callendars for lunch...it isn't an Apostolic problem. It is very irritating when Apostolic women are labelled as if they are the only ones who ever wore a Granny sweater. I really don't see where salvation has much to do with changing a person's taste in clothing, or opening their eyes and showing them a bright light from heaven, flashing the words, What Not To Wear.

Those frumpy women would still be frumpy in their "Mom" jeans.

[pelathais]

Fashion is fickle and ever changing. A comparatively small segment of our society makes a huge amount of money by influencing the fickle changes. There is huge competition in this industry to control the next style fad. Did you see that huge diamond that was sold at auction the other day? The buyer is the Guess Jeans fashion designer.

None of this answers your question, but even if your wife (and mine!) wore Guess Jeans or any other type of "popular fashion" they would feel the same pressures. No matter what you do, you're not doing it right according to someone who stands to make a buck if you change your habits.

It's like Ozzy and Harriet's little boy, Ricky used to sing: "You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself."

If you feel that you're pleasing God, and if that is pleasing to you; then carry on.

[Pragmatist]

The problem as I see it is there generally isn't much of a middle ground. You have those who are stylish and look very classy following "holiness standards" and you have those who look frumpy.

IMO, it is more difficult for a woman to dress "casual" while following standards without looking frumpy. If you need to wear comfortable shoes (i.e. tennis shoes), they often don't look that great with a skirt.

[MrsMcD]

My thoughts are some women don't know how to dress stylish. It wouldn't matter if they were or were not in a standard preaching church.

What does gripe me is when a women enters into a standard teaching church and then lets herself go i.e. dressing sloppy, etc. I have seen this happen many times.

[OneAccord]

"Standards PROTECT inward holiness"

But do they PROJECT inward holiness?

What we call standards shouldn't have much to do with "frumpiness" or how we look to others. Wouldn't that be a matter of pride? What we call standards should be about how we appear to God. I look frumpy in anything I wear!

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by MrsMcD

My thoughts are some women don't know how to dress stylish. It wouldn't matter if they were or were not in a standard preaching church.

What does gripe me is when a women enters into a standard teaching church and then lets herself go i.e. dressing sloppy, etc. I have seen this happen many times.

This usually starts happening immediately after they "get their man!" and say their vows if you know what I mean. LOL And I have seen it MANY times (in fact a majority) myself.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by OneAccord

"Standards PROTECT inward holiness"

But do they PROJECT inward holiness?

What we call standards shouldn't have much to do with "frumpiness" or how we look to others. Wouldn't that be a matter of pride? What we call standards should be about how we appear to God. I look frumpy in anything I wear!

The answer is quite the opposite. In most cases it provides a FEELING (or an illusion) that the inward holiness is there, without it actually being so. All because the attention is so laser focused on the externals based on a written or unwritten church rule book.

[Darcie]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

The answer is quite the opposite. In most cases it provides a FEELING (or an illusion) that the inward holiness is there, without it actually being so. All because the attention is so laser focused on the internals based on a written or unwritten church rule book.

Amen! I remember thinking "oh I'm going to heaven I don't cut my hair, where pants, etc.". But know what? my insides were ugly. Standards do not protect inward holiness. You have to work on that daily. With prayer, devotions, worship, and all that good stuff.

Originally Posted by bdlooney

I am so frustrated with people today!

Why is it that when anyone of our people (Ladies especially) hold up "traditional" standards of dress they are automatically deemed as unfashionable?

My good wife wears skirts well below her knees and she is extremely fashionable. She does not look frumpy, weird, old lady or anything!

She looks like a lady who is worshipping her God in the beauty of holiness. Just because she doesn't have a tug-of-war match with her skirt every service does not make her archaic!

And this is not about my wife. I am using her as an example.

And just who determines fashion anyway? Is it a Spirit filled, modesty loving person? I don't think so! So why do we attempt to measure up to them?

I remember a scripture that says We are in the world but not of the world!

Why is there an assault on the holiness loving people that uphold outward standards to protect inward holiness? And why are these assualts coming from those that once were apart of us?

If you want to be charismatic then be charismatic but please stop trying to shove your so called "liberty" down my throat!!!!

There I think my rant is over!

Why would outward holiness protect inward holiness....I think its the other way around myself....because my heart is holy...Jesus makes me holy, loving Him, believing in Him, that is what makes me holy...not the clothes I wear...being immodest is not anything that has been pushed on here...just some of us don't feel a dress is any holier than other types of clothing...