Hi everyone! I have been gone for a loooooong time! Had some soul searching to do with my husband and I left the internet world for awhile. I have a quick update to this post:
I have changed some of my convictions. With my man, I learned that modesty is totally subject to what the husband wants. The Father did not give us a concrete rule book on what makes a woman appear modest. There are a few scriptures where you can wiggle it in to sound that way, but overall, its a silent issue. So we concluded that modesty is a heart state- a state of mind... not a dress code. I learned that women should only go to their own husbands to decide what modesty is in his household.
Mrs. Starr, thank you for starting this topic! I read through it today and thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and I learned a lot! I find it interesting that your response (above) echoes the response below:
Just to be clear I am not advocating for women to walk around the grocery store in lingerie. I am advocating for men to step up and take charge and set the standards for their household. Whatever level of "sexy" a man permits or even requires for his women is what she should go by. We shouldn't be attempting to pluck a verse out of context and make it say something it doesn't say.
I wanted to read every post in this topic before I responded. And you and Pacman are essentially on the same page with my family.
My husband's first and now ex-wife Shari had insisted on us wearing very modest and very conservative clothing both in and out of the house. It was a little stifling and we ended up looking weird when we went out. It attracted too much attention and in my opinion it wasn't humble because it wasn't offered in humility.
What's ironic is that after the divorce Shari moved away and is now living a very secular lifestyle and modesty is no longer part of her life. Turns out she didn't like living by her rules either!
In the course of reading all of this I realized that our family has three standards of modesty:
1. When the ladies are off the ranch we dress modestly but not like we look weird. Skirts, dresses, blouses, are typical unless it's winter when jeans and warm clothes make a ton more sense. On the ranch but outside of the house we dress for the activity. I like to hike and that means boots, shorts, and a light top. This also means I try to keep myself in shape so I don't scare people when I wear boots, shorts, and a light top!
2. At home when our husband isn't here and there's no one else around we're much more relaxed in the morning and at night. During the day we wear what we want.
3. When Steve is home we're a little more modest during the day than when he isn't home. I hadn't thought about that until I was reading this topic and I realized we're not as relaxed when he's here.
I'll note that our modesty level is changing as the kids are becoming teenagers. Eric is the oldest in the house at 13 and he's starting to notice girls so some of our past activities around the house have had to change.
Steve really does set the standard for what he thinks is acceptable dress and we respect that. It's easy to respect his standard because he's flexible about what we wear at home.