Women Alive

“It’s getting harder and harder to tell who the hookers are,” one male Calgary Stampede attender commented to a roving radio journalist. When asked why, he explained, “Because all the girls are wearing short shorts nowadays!”

I felt sick when my husband told me about that radio comment. Not a self-righteous “oh those bad girls” kind of sick. More like “I wish I had been a better example” kind of sick. For years after I came to know Jesus at 18, I continued to wear clothes that sent the wrong message. Even after I had girls of my own, I wore shorts that were too short — by too short I mean closer to the hip than the knee. I was past 40 before I wised up and refused to wear anything that didn’t reach the kneecap.

Why did I do it – dress inappropriately, that is? Honestly? It was rebellion. I can remember the thoughts I had whenever I felt a twinge of conscience about the amount of leg I was showing: “what’s the big deal about legs? It’s not like it’s cleavage or anything!” The truth of the matter is I didn’t have any cleavage to show! With that kind of attitude, if I had had it I would have flaunted it!

Why the confession? Simply this: when I saw that this month’s topic was holiness, I knew I couldn’t write about it without being completely frank about an area of holiness we don’t often talk about – our wardrobe. Holiness needs to come out of the closet – literally. It needs to come out of our closets.

What is holiness? The word invokes the smell of incense and pew wax. We see dust motes floating in the muted rays of light streaming through stained glass. Holiness sounds like a highfalutin churchy word. It’s not something we talk about much with our friends, is it? We talk about fitness or stylishness but seldom holiness. Keeping holy doesn’t concern us as much as keeping up with the latest trends in fashion.

But holiness has more to do with fashion than many people realize. Holiness means to be “set apart for God.” At its most basic level, believers are set apart from the nonbelieving world and set apart for following God. Which means what? Simply this – we ought to look different than those who don’t know Jesus! Sadly, for too many years, when I traipsed around in my too-short shorts, I didn’t look different enough.

We can have style without suggestion. We can honor our Lord with our wardrobe. We can be holy – different, set apart – for His glory. My adult daughters, who “got it” at a much younger age than I did, have a great slogan they use when they go shopping for new clothes. Try it, it might change your “look” for next season or, hopefully, the rest of your life: “modest is hottest.”