Grace and Peace

(This is lengthy, but some of it is song lyrics.)I have recently come across a song that strikes two emotions in me: anger and sorrow. The song: I'll make them good girls go bad. Just knowing the title makes me cringe, so i looked up the lyrics and sure enough this song is yet another look at the depraved human heart. Im not going to post the entire song, just one little snip-it later and i will also be using other examples. This is a post not solely addressing a song about good girls going bad, but rather a woman's call to modesty.

This topic of modesty is a big issue for women because many of us gals have a tendency to place worth in beauty and the attention we can get from boys which is wrong because our worth comes from God and God alone. Modesty is important for us because it falls into a pretty big category in the christian's life: not conforming to the world. " Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him ." 1 John 2:15. When we are modest not only in our dress and appearance, but also in our attitudes (which ill go into more detail later) we are showing the world that we don't place our value in people's attention and opinion of us.

On the surface modesty would appear to only go as far as makeup and clothes and the way those two are arranged, but it really is such a deeper...its a heart issue. Girls today are tempted to show a little skin to get a lingering look. So a sacrifice of purity is made just to get attention for a few seconds and inevitably lead someone to lust whether knowingly or not and regardless of if they care or not. This attention comes from a desire that is in all of us. Whether male or female all of us want to be wanted and loved and appreciated, it just takes different forms depending on whether your male or female. This desire isn't bad but when it becomes ultimate to the point where we sacrifice purity and living for the glory of God, then its a sin.

Here are some examples of a worldly mindset on modesty:

As promised, the formerly mentioned song:

I know your type
Yeah daddy's little girl
Just take a bite (one bite)
Let me shake up your world
Cause just one night couldn't be so wrong
I'm gonna make you lose control

I'll make them good girls go bad
(Ladies we need to be self controlled, and yes one night could be so wrong and so damaging)

And a blast from the past: These are cuts from two songs in the popular play/movie Grease:

(this is rizzo making fun of sandy)
Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee
Lousy with virginity
Won't go to bed 'til I'm legally wed
I can't; I'm Sandra Dee
(Trust me here ladies...waiting is so incredibly worth it)

(these are actually, sandy's words)
Look at me
there has to be
Something more than what they see
Wholesome and pure
Oh scared and unsure
A poor man's Sandra Dee
(Wholesome and pure...thats a great thing to be...stay that way for the glory of God)

I'm to young to understand
I don't need a boy , I need a man
look at me, look at me
The queen of virginity!
maybe it's wrong but I know it's right
just look I'm Sandra Dee
(maybe its wrong but i know its right, sounds like your giving into the world)

Sandy, you must start a new
Don't you know what you must do?
Hold your head high, take a deep breath and sigh
Good bye to Sandra Dee
(More like goodbye to purity)

Both of these, a modern song and an older musical, are examples of the temptation for young women to give up a piece of their purity,y a piece of their heart just to impress a boy who is less than worthy of their attention. Even all the way back in Biblical times this was an issue. 1 Timothy 2:9 says, " likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self control, not with braided hair and gold and pearls and costly attire." Even women of this day wanted to look like women of the world to get attention, they just had the wrong motives in mind. So what do we wear or what is the right mind set? its already answered in this very verse: respectable apparel (and yes it is possible to look cute and still be modest), modesty, and self control. If we're professing to belong to christ these are some ways we can best model him.