Stemmed from a hypothetical conversation in our cultural missionary class about whether or not missionaries claiming to bring only the gospel should dress exactly the same as the people they minister to or not, I got into a discussion with Adam about the power of clothing and how it really does send so many strong, "hard-to-convince-otherwise" messages, as well as can cause both girls and guys to stumble. Guys with lust and girls with envy. Eww...
If you know me, you know I don't ever really dress like a ho (no offense to any hos who may be reading this) in fact, more often than not, when choosing outfits, I just look for something in my limited closet to find something colorful that doesn't make me look like a cow or a man (depending on the insecure perspective I'm feeling that day) or, on my more positive days, I wear something that expresses the mood I presently feel or want to feel.
My point is I don't dress what most would consider to be skanky, sleezy or even sexy. However, I do have some shirts that I've been wearing more recently that... I guess you could say... may create enough of a distraction that a guy talking to me may have to be conscious of looking at my eyes when he talks and I didn't even realize it.
I think girls, especially ones shaped like me, have an unfortunate tendency to be unaware of firstly, their own beauty, and secondly, the power their beauty has on the people around them. Of course you can't control everything about the way you look. For example, if you were born 6 ft. tall and are a girl, I'm sorry but no matter how hard you try, you're going to be noticed and more than likely it will be for your legs (as well as your awful awkwardness when sitting in chairs or walking through doors).
You can't control what you look like exactly, and you def. can't completely control what others look at on you or what they think. I would like to argue, though, that women have a lot more control about what people think and even over men's struggles than most women want to admit and some of us "Christian" college ladies are not doing a very good job with protecting the only piece of creation God gave us nearly complete control over.
I've noticed that far more often than not, girls spend a lot of energy, time, conversation and money trying to control how they look and usually compromise their purity, their image/reputation, and too often the innocence of young men, by dressing in a way that provokes attention to their physical fleating beauty rather than investing in, building up, and flaunting their Inner beauty.
I think, when a girl starts to purposely spends the time "to cover up" -*being attractive is okay, and definitely working out on your body/strength is okay, but uncovering parts of your body that could easily be left unexposed is better*= for others sake's if not only for herself, then her inward beauty will grow and she will be making a powerful impact on the kingdom.
When I go overseas, I may live in a village where the women only wear skirts (like the men) and I'm seriously not sure what i will wear (FYI , the only reason I consider wearing what they wear is because I really want to just bring the Gospel and want to fit in with the culture as much as is possible without compromising the faith), what I do know is this.
If I am even going to attempt to make an argument for not wearing a shirt while serving as a Christ-follower overseas because I say that I don't want my clothes or any material thing to be a distraction, then I had better be sure that right now, my clothes are not a distraction (even if the temptation to wear attention-getting beautiful clothes is strong). I need to get into the habit of reflecting the attention I receive back to the Giver, rather than trying to reflect whatever manufactured or real beauty I possess.
Do us girls really want to be noticed for what we wear and how we look, or do we want to be known and noticed for who we are? If the latter is true, then why do we invest in the looks? Oh... us girls are just so good at giving mixed messages! It's crazy!
Anyway, after my convo with Adam in front of my dorm, I walked up to my room to get a drink of water and quickly tossed on my favorite conveyor guys shirt. Can I tell you something?
I've never felt so HOT in a T-shirt before...
