Thoughts...on protection!

     This afternoon I was checking my emails...and one caught my eye. It was from the blog Lies Young Women Believe, a blog written by a group of women, mostly for an audience of young ladies (such as myself). This past week they have been writing the posts all on guys. The author of the posts is actually Dannah Gresh, who wrote get lost (the book which my last post was written on). Today's post struck me the most...

     It is based on the question: Does He Protect Your Purity? I can't answer the question right now, because I haven't met my prince yet, but in the future I'd like to think that the answer would be YES. Dannah talks about sex trafficking and rape in this post and at first I wondered what she was getting at.   

     Dannah then writes something that explains where she is going with all this sad talk about the disrespect of men who rape girls. "God's very definition of sex transcends the physical act and emphasizes the emotional knowing and exchange of respect that is the essence of His intended design." Real men respect women. Some men don't like the idea of protecting women and frankly, I don't know why. As a christian brother, you are supposed to step up and protect and respect your sisters. No matter what girl/woman you face you're supposed to act in integrity. But, we can't leave women out either. As christian sisters, we are to respect our brothers and future husbands with modest clothes and a modest attitude, which includes how you present yourself. If you would like to view this post please follow this link: http://www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com/index.php?id=2023.
     So sisters, next time you think about the young man you gave your heart to...ask yourself if he protects your purity. And brothers, remember "Real men don't buy girls...they protect them." "Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." - Romans 12:10 (NLT)  

     A part of my personal life does tie in: Currently my family supports a young girl named Sabani, who is from Odisha. She resides in a place called House of Refuge, which is run by a missionary family. House of Refuge  is a place for girls only, who are poor and unable to get an education through their families. Since they are poor they are also in danger of being sold into sexual slavery or prostitution. One of the saddest things is temple prostitution (to read an article about this click here). 

Modesty: Not Just Something On The Outside

Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. 1 Timothy 2:9-10

The dictionary defines modesty as the quality of being modest; freedom from vanity, boastfulness, etc. I think that it is a great definition, but it is missing something. Modesty is not just a description for the outside of your body, but also the inside; your heart. Actually, modesty is a matter of the heart completely. Outer modesty comes from what you value and store up in your heart. You reflect God's love and reserve when you dress with modesty. When I get dressed in the morning I look in the mirror and ask myself if God would approve of what I am wearing. We should all be asking that question and we should also be asking if our heart is in the right place, so that we can let God shine through us.  

The Rebelution Survey on MODESTY

I was just reading the modesty results from the Rebelution survey... It definitely gave me some great pointers..on what real purity is and how to dress and act without attracting ungodly men.
I wish I could go unto each of the young men who participated and say thank you!
I don't get a lot of insight in my church because there aren't a lot of teenage boys in my church, so it was very helpful!
If you would like to visit these results go to: theRebelution.com and click on the modesty surgery ad on the right side.

Modesty - LYWB

I follow a blog called www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com. It had a post on modesty today and I wanted to share it with all of you...

Isn't modesty the guy's problem?

Myself posted by Erin Davis on 05/05/11

When I was a young woman, I often dressed immodestly. I wasn't driven by a desire to draw attention to myself. In my case, my clothes were immodest because I was clueless.

Throughout high school and college I didn't understand that being modest meant more than covering up your belly button. More importantly, I didn't understand why modesty mattered because I didn't have a firm grasp of how my immodest clothing was impacting my Christian brothers.

If you're a little like me—you don't understand why modesty matters, you don't know for sure if your clothing is modest or not, and you don't fully grasp why what you wear matters to the guys your around—consider this a wake-up call. After reading this post and watching the video below, you will have to face the fact that what you wear matters and that immodesty is truly everyone's problem.

Sometimes when I speak or write about modesty, girls feed me this line: "I can't help it if a guy pays attention to me or my body. If my clothes make him stumble, that's his problem, not mine." If only it were that easy. The reality is God has connected us to our Christian brothers through the body of Christ. In His Word He makes it very clear that if you are doing something that trips up the people around you, you are in the wrong and the responsibility for their struggle rests on your shoulders.

In Romans, Paul offers important advice about how we should relate to each other. He was specifically writing to address the topic of food, but the principles certainly apply to modesty. To help you apply the meat of these passages, I have replaced references to food with references to fashion. Pay close attention to Paul's words. Ask yourself what these passages reveal about why modesty matters so much.

"Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you [wear], you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your [clothing] destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of [what you wear], but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

"Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of [fashion]. All [clothing] is clean, but it is wrong for a person to [wear] anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to [dress to impress others] or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall" (Rom. 14:13–21). 

(The movie above is really for girls though)