Girls Gone Wise Book Blog 12: Authenticity

Point of Contrast 12: Authenticity

Shopping: The Great Social Experiment

The electronic doors slid open and I slipped into the department store smoothing back my
wayward curls. I intended only a quick dash into the store on my way home from the gym. At the counter I waited patiently, a little embarrassed at my shaggy condition and eager to spring back out of those sleek doors. The clerk behind the counter glanced up, I thought she acknowledged me, but she returned to her inventory. Another customer made her way to the counter and her professional attire and confident approach was met with warm service. "Did she just...ignore me because of the way I look?," I thought to myself. I let the thought go and spoke to the clerk warmly and directly and made my purchase. On a mission, I headed for the exit. When I got home, I realized that I had the wrong item and would have to make an exchange. An important event in the afternoon prompted a dramatic upgrade to my appearance, if you know what I mean. I did the extreme makeover and took my polished self back through those daunting doors. The same clerk was as the counter, but this time her response was swift and professional. I believe it came as a shock for her to realize that I was the same lady who purchased the item a few hours before. There was nothing different about me as a person, I had merely cleaned and ordered the outside. It reminded me of a sad reality and that is how easy it is to be two-faced. Being someone different in different circumstances and relationships is something we all have to deal with on a personal level. Are we authentic?

Everybody Does It This Way

The woman in Proverbs 7 had a big day in keeping her vows and making offerings. Mary Kassian explains that the type of offering she made was in response to an answered request. Imagine getting all cleaned up (which was required if you were going to make an offering) and cooking up a huge, extravagant gift to be offered in a religious ceremony. Washing and presenting oneself clean and prepared for the offering required planning and preparation. No doubt the people watching were impressed with this young woman's spirituality. She played herself up to be really religious. Who would suspect that a few hours later, the queen of hypocrisy would be making her bed and adorning herself for the extreme opposing behavior of adultery. In the streets, her enticing words reveal a two-faced woman, something Mary makes very plain in this chapter. One minute she is super spiritual, talking all about her vows and her faithful service. In the evening, she sets a trap for a young man and the only pleasure she seeks is her own. There is no concern for God or His ways. How could she justify her drastic sin?

Redefining God's Standard

The sage father in Proverbs is warning his son about this woman. He says "This is the way of the adulteress; she eats and wipes her mouth and says, I have done no wrong." Proverbs 30:20
She has redefined God and His standards as what she wants. Patterns in the behavior of the two-faced person spill out in day to day life, patterns that redefine what is right according to what self desires. There is GREAT DANGER in pretending to be something that we are not. God is never fooled by our "spiritual" rituals; He knows our hearts and He cares about our deepest selves. If we choose to settle for surface acts of worship, one day our hearts will be broken because we never took hold of real forgiveness and worked to rid our lives of sinful pretense. As long as we are pretenders, we remove ourselves from the deep cleansing and peace that obedience and fellowship with Him brings!

Designer Insights

Are you struggling with hypocrisy? Mary gives seven areas where hypocrisy expresses itself. A contradiction between who you really are and who you pretend to be tells the truth about you. If you are a girl who appears to seek God, but really just wants God to indulge you, then you are also faking true faith. External appearances don't match the heart if you are playing a spiritual role. You can half way obey the things you know to do and rationalize your way through the things you know are wrong, if your heart is not genuine. It is really easy to look down on others with contempt who are not living up to the standard you pretend to hold. You are a chameleon in your conduct changing your attitude and behavior to match your circumstances; if you don't really know who you are you conform to the crowd you are with.

What Does God Say About This?


Read Colossians 2:8 Paul says don't let deceptive empty ideas take you captive.

• Would you agree that judging based on outward appearance is a hollow and empty way to think?
• Would you agree that doing things to get attention and approval from people when they are not true to you is equally empty?
• Why do you think it is so easy for us to focus on the approval of people?
  

Read Colossians 2:2-3 Where are the real treasures found?

Read the rest of Colossians 2 and see if you can define "false humility."

May God help us to be authentic women deep in our hearts so that we enjoy fellowship with Him and live in joyful obedience!

Hello Ladies,
I will be taking a break from the blog for a week or so until I complete some school work.
Delighting in Him,
Catherine

Girls Gone Wise Book Blog 11: Boundaries

Point of Contrast 11: Hedges

Purity Rating:100%

She wasn't looking for the relationship, but he started coming by the coffee shop and the conversations grew into a few innocently romantic dates. She was a follower of Jesus and she was eager to share her faith with him as she got to know him. He invited her to a party a couple of weeks later and she rationalized her way past her better judgment and decided to go with him. She had no intentions of doing anything that would harm her reputation. The date went terribly wrong. She was somehow tricked into drinking a drug that knocked her out.
Mary Kassian tells of her conversation with this young woman five years later in the introduction to this chapter. She innocently trusted the young man with whom she went to the
party. Can you imagine the horror she felt when a few weeks later she learned she was pregnant? She had been date-raped and this Christian young woman, with innocent intentions, had to face the brokenness of her life and a pregnancy out of wedlock. Mary explains the deep damage this had on her soul which was still painfully present five years later.
Young women are sometimes the victims of abuse by men and they often are not guilty in these situations. But one important thing to learn from this chapter in GGW is how to avoid many of these situations and others with responsibility through living a lifestyle guarded by sturdy hedges. If the young woman we discussed above had been cautious about her involvement with a young man she did not really know and had been careful to avoid environments she could not trust, she may never have had to experience the horror that evening brought to her life.
What kind of decisions do you need to make to create hedges for yourself?

Environmental Hedges and The WHY!

Do you REALLY know Jesus? When the early church was gripped by the reality that He was "for real" raised from the dead, it all began to make sense in a deeper way. God had sent His Son to tell them of His love and mercy. Jesus did do miracles and teach a way of life that brought joy and hope. He did suffer horribly, though He was not guilty, to buy forgiveness and settle the separation that sin wedged between man and God. They got it! And they were full of joy, so much joy! Even when the disciples were put into jail and beaten for teaching and proclaiming this great news, the Scriptures report that they were "full with joy that they had been considered worthy to bear humiliation for the sake of the name." (Acts 5:41 JB Phillips translation) The relationship they had with Jesus was more important to them than anything. He loved them and they were HIS! Lifestyles changed dramatically for this group of hopeful followers. You should read this exciting story in the book of Acts. The center of their lives and faith community was knowing and obeying Jesus!
When we think of hedges, we need the reference point of God's love for us to help us focus our lives on Him. Hedges keep things in and hedges keep things out! In this point of contrast Mary Kassian reminds us that the woman of Proverbs 7 is out in places when she does not need to be with the intention of entrapping a man. She is out in the darkness with lustful intent, she was not hedged into a proper place of self restraint. (Proverbs 7:9) This is a critical point for a girl who is choosing to be a wise follower of Jesus. In contrast to patrolling the night scene to meet up with a member of the male species, a wise girl is considering carefully where she needs to be to avoid dangers to her person and to her reputation. You can see that one of the main differences between a woman who is cautious and a woman who is not is a sense of dignity in who owns her life and she knows she is precious to Him.. Where she goes and what she does reflects a lot on her sense of worth and her desire to keep her relationship with Jesus close. She will not put herself in environments that risk distracting or exposing her mind, heart or body. She should never "be on the prowl" to meet guys. She looks to God to bring proper relationships her way and she would never settle for just anybody. So what if the world laughs at you? A little persecution here for the sake of the precious Name of Jesus is not a big deal ladies!

Physical Hedges

The Psalmist asks "How shall a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word." (Psalm 119:9 ESV) These words are for every human being and instruct that the journey of life is to be guarded by whom? The young person being addressed here is responsible for keeping his way pure. The guidance for the guarding and the hedging is in God's Word. A young woman has to take ownership of the power of her sexuality. The curves of her body and femininity are appealing to men and draw them to desire her when they are exposed.
God commands modesty because it is a way of hedging protection around the woman and the mind of the man. Sure it's very cool to be "hot" in our culture and to dress to attract a compliment like that is asking a guy to look at your body, not you as a person. That's off of God's boundary list. Clothing should cover the contours and minimize the exposure of skin that draws the eye toward the secret parts of your body. That does not mean you can not be stylish, but it does mean that the styles you choose are not to uncover and draw a man to look at you in a way that only your husband should look at you. Careful checks on your chest, waistline and legs should be a regular part of the way you honor your body for the greater honor of your relationship with Jesus. Surely He smiles when His daughters pull that cami up to conceal delicate cleavage from the eyes that don't need to see it, or when she changes her skirt because she will not risk drawing attention to the intimate places of her body. She is hedging her purity in with a message that says, "I am not cheap, and I'm not begging for you to check me out".
Another place of physical hedging is how a young woman touches or allows herself to be touched. Impurity can begin so innocently. A girl who gives a hug to a guy with full body contact may not recognize that having this level of contact is very stimulating to her guy friends. She needs to avoid placing her body against her guy friends in order to protect herself and to protect them from wandering down unacceptable thought paths about her. It will sound pretty old school to say that physical touch like making out and the things that happen after that are off the list of a wise girl's "acceptable behavior list", but they are. Physical touching is progressive. If you are not responsible to set a boundary that keeps things at a respectable stopping point, you will easily keep on the escalator and go further and further toward acts that are sacredly designed for marriage. Paul tells the new believers not to defraud or steal from each other in this way. This guarding begins with how you speak to a guy. Mary reminds young women to keep all your electronic communication pure; don't phone, text, chat, email, skype, or anything else you have available, any message of yourself that is intentionally sexual. Don't tease with seductive words or looks. Don't invite or allow touch that is intended to be sensuous. Don't invite a guy to touch your legs, or other parts of your body that you should share only with your husband. Set the hedge up now with a heart that wants to please the Lover of your soul. When the time comes for the full expression of marital intimacy, you will reap a rich reward.

Designer Insights

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-4: Create a list of hedges that you could create to help you walk out the guidance of this verse.

Read 1 Corinthians 6:18-20: How does honoring God with your body relate to creating hedges of protection?

Read Psalm 119: 1-3 What is the reward for choosing to walk in careful obedience?

Ask God to help you create a list of personal boundaries that you will follow to protect your own purity and set an example for the purity of others; write them down and keep them in a place you will see them often. Pray that the Lord will help you live out these boundaries.

May God help you to create lovely hedges that will keep the fragrance of your life pure and your future full of blessing.

Girls Gone Wise Book Blog 10: Sexual Conduct

Point of Contrast 10: Sexual Conduct

How Far is Too Far?

How far is too far? We find ourselves attracted to a guy and we want to know "where is the line for the physical expression in our relationship?" Just how close can we get before we have violated some level of intimacy that needs to be saved for marriage?
Mary Kassian says in Girls Gone Wise that this is the wrong question? The deep meaning of our relationships is lost in the SEX SATURATED world where we live! So how do we find out what our romantic lives are supposed to be like?

The Ring

A young woman was very close to an elderly aunt who had no children. After her death, this niece was invited to go through her aunt's jewelry and pick out whatever she would like to keep.
A large collection of old costume jewelry had little appeal to her, but she loved her aunt and picked out a few things to remember her. One ring was particularly attractive so she tried it on and it fit. There were lots of small cubic zirconium stones forming the lovely shape. She kept the ring and enjoyed wearing it. She lifeguarded and cleaned with chemicals with it on because she didn't think it would matter. A few weeks later she was in a jewelry store and asked the jeweler if the ring was of any value. Much to her surprise, the "cz" stones were really diamonds and the ring was worth several thousand dollars. Needless to say, she took the ring off and now stores it in a safe place. She wears it only for special occasions; she knows the real value of the ring. It is no longer ordinary!
Hopefully, you will see that the ordinary and loose expressions of sexual conduct in our culture do not come close to demonstrating the real value that God assigned to sex. It was created with deeply precious foundations. The intimate relationship between a man and woman is a picture of something much more permanent than physical pleasure. We don't celebrate sex as much as we should, we make it cheap and ordinary by tearing it away from its real meaning. It is a symbol of the deep picture of intimacy that is rooted in the Good News of the Gospel and the love of God.

So what does SEX have to do with the Gospel?

Remember in Genesis 2 where God created the man and the woman? They were created in His image, but they were not exactly the same. The relationship they were to have together was unique, each giving to the other in some distinct ways. The idea of a BRIDE is not exclusively related to the marriage of a man and woman in Scripture, it is a picture of a larger reality. In Ephesians 1:2-11 you can just drink in the love language of God for His children. Before the foundation of the world (Wow!) God chose us to be in relationship with Him through His Son, to be adopted into His family. God knew that man would sin from the beginning and the love relationship of deep fellowship would be horribly broken. God had a plan, to buy man back from his sin and restore that empty, brokenness of life without His fellowship. The plan was for the painful gift of God's Son's blood to pay for our sin that we might become a people who are pure and acceptable before Him. When Jesus paid the price for His Bride on the cross, He was buying back hearts for a relationship to Himself. The Church is composed of His Bride, those who have accepted His grace and are following Him. We are awaiting a future time of being with Him in eternal intimacy. Marriage and sex are both gifts and symbols of the future time when we will be His forever and know and be known by Him. So when a man and woman commit their life to God and to each other in marriage, they have made an agreement with God that they will love and care for each other until they die. The gift of physical intimacy is the mark of this covenant relationship. It is anything but ordinary!

Designer Insights

If a young woman understands that her sexuality is part of God's plan for intimacy on earth with her husband and that it reflects the picture of God's love for His beloved Bride, then how should she conduct herself sexually?
In the Bible when a woman was betrothed, (which is a bit like being engaged, only a much greater level of commitment) she was very careful to be busy with preparations for the wedding. She was "taken" and she kept herself for her groom. As the Bride of Christ, we are waiting to be with Him forever, we must keep ourselves pure for Him. A young unmarried woman should ask "How can I keep my heart/ life pure for You in this relationship Jesus?"

Read I Thessalonians 4:3-5 To be sanctified is to be set a part. What does this passage have to say about sexual conduct?

Read Ephesians 5:3-4 If you use this advice as a standard, how far is too far to go in sexual expression outside of marriage?

Read Hebrews 12:14 What happens to the believer who refuses to be holy?

If you have failed in this area, it is time to seek forgiveness and start over. I John 1:9 says that when we come to Jesus in true confession and turning from our sin, He will forgive us and cleanse us. This is GRACE from the Heavenly Bridegroom! Don't go back to the ordinary now that you know the true value of your sexuality. Cover your heart and your body and walk in dignity until the time for sexual celebration in marriage is yours.

Girls Gone Wise Book Blog 9: Roles

Point of Contrast 9: Roles

Who are the People in a Real Love Story?

A guy in high school reported that he tried to open the doors between buildings for the girls as a polite gesture only to have them stand back and say "I can open the door for myself, thank you!" He wasn't romantically interested in the girls, he was just trying to treat them as ladies; unfortunately they didn't appreciate the honor. Treating women with gentleness and respect is part of the Master Designer's plan for men and women. God has established certain roles that are unique to men and to women. Grasping this design is an important pathway to understanding who you are. Genesis 1:27 reads "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Both men and women are created in the image of God, with personality, emotions and the ability to think and relate. They are equally related to God as image bearers, more like Him than any other creatures in the world. But there were some unique aspects of the design of each gender that are woven carefully into the account of their creation. Stay with me here; it will take a little more explanation to see God's big picture developing but the beauty comes together in the end!

God's Unique Design for Man

Mary Kassian explains in GGW that man is unique in the following ways:
1. He was created first. The first born male always has responsibilities in Scripture.
(Genesis 2:7)
2. God created Adam outside of Eden and brought him to his home there. (Genesis 2:15)
3. God assigned Adam work to do before the fall. (Genesis 2:15)
4. God assigned Adam responsibility to keep or protect the garden. (Genesis 2:15)
5. God gave Adam spiritual instructions about his behavior. (Genesis 2:16-17)
6. God gave Adam authority and responsibility in naming and governing over the garden.
(Genesis 2:19-20)

God's Unique Design for Woman

1. God created the woman from out of the man. (Genesis 2:21-22)
2. God created the woman to be a counterpart or helper for the man. (Genesis 2:18)
3. God created the woman with unique abilities to cooperate with the man in carrying out God's plan for them that neither of them could carry out alone. (Genesis 2:18)
4. God created the woman and brought her to the man indicating his leadership responsibility in the home. (Genesis 2:22-23)
5. God created the woman unique from the man to compliment Him. (Genesis 2:23) See the Hebrew language comments below.
6. God created the woman in the garden, a place of safety.

Adam had been in fellowship with God in the beginning, and the work he was doing in naming animals and keeping the garden kept him busy. No doubt he realized that all the animals had a partner and that he did not. When God caused his first born son to fall into a deep sleep, he took a rib from his side and fashioned a woman. The original language gives a beautiful picture of God's handiwork. The Hebrew name for the male is "ish" which means strong. The female is "isha" which means soft. Though the words indicate that both the male and female have some very profound similarities; they also are fashioned to be distinct. The strong one and the soft one were joined together as partners in the first home.
God had made Adam to work and protect the garden; he was brought to the garden by God, not created there as Eve was. He was given authority as is seen in his work of naming. Always in Scripture, the person who names has authority over the person being named. Adam named the woman Eve, but God is the One who named Adam. Do you see the difference? God told Adam what the boundaries were about eating the fruit from the trees and he later bore the responsibility for their sin even though Eve took the first bite because God had given him the instructions before Eve was created.
The woman was created as a helper fit for Adam. In the Hebrew this word is "ezer"; it is a word that is used many times in the Old Testament, but it is mostly used in reference to God.
God is the helper who comes alongside of man. Along the same thought process, woman has been given the unique role to come alongside of the man. She was given to assist him in achieving the great blessings that God had for them. For instance, God told them to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28) which was a command which neither of them could fulfill alone. Their partnership was to bring them intimacy,and a deep companionship. (Genesis 2:24-25)
We all know that Adam and Eve did not obey the commands that God had given to them in the garden and so their perfect lives fell apart. What was supposed to be a loving leadership role for Adam was harmed in the fall and the one that was supposed to be a loving compliment for Adam wound up taking authority and leading both of them into a broken relationship with God. They had to leave their home and its safety as well as experience broken fellowship with God because of their rebellion.

Designer Insights

The picture here is that the relationship between the man and the woman are symbolic of Christ and His church. God sent His son to the earth as a Heavenly Bridegroom
to gather to Himself a Bride which the Bible tells us is the church, the ones that have received His forgiveness and given themselves to Him. It is the ultimate love story! The King comes to the earth, pays the price to win the Bride through His death and promises to return for her and take her forever. Our relationships on earth are supposed to reflect this pattern which is always before us. Marriage, sex and families are mirrors that reflect the greater image of Christ and His Bride. Now the Bride of Christ looks to Him for guidance and protection and loves Him deeply, and is always preparing for His coming.

Read Matthew 19:4-6 Do you think that it is important that Jesus is using the exact words from Genesis about the creation of both the male and the female?

Since the fall, both men and women have abused their roles. Men have been pushy and selfishly demanding toward women and women have inappropriately manipulated men as well. Being selfish is natural, but girls, to act in a godly way is to have heart that is willing to be led. So when it comes time to marry, you should look for a godly gentleman that you will be able to follow.

Read 1 Peter 3:4-7 What insights about the way a man and woman treat each other in marriage can you gain from this passage?

Read Revelation 19:7 Do you see how marriage reflects the relationship of Jesus to His Bride, the Church?

Girls Gone Wise 8: Body Language

Point of Contrast 8: Body Language
To Flirt or Not to Flirt, that is the Question

Have you seen the beauty pageants featuring little girls as contestants? Mary begins this chapter in GGW with how the little girls are taught to flash their eye lashes and sway their hips in front of the judges. They are being taught to give the seductive look a woman gives when she is inviting a man to look at her sexually. God's reactions to seductive women have been recorded numerous places in Scripture and His take on the "flirt" is anything but amusing. He chooses to dish out very harsh punishment to the Israelite women who so dazzled themselves. Listen to this: 'The Lord says "the women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion, the Lord will make their scalps bald." ( Isaiah 3:16-17) The passage goes on to address the excessive adornment of the women, but you have to see that the first thing God condemned was the way they were carrying themselves and the way they were using their eyes.

Designer Insights

Read Ephesians 5:3 Paul says there must not even be a ______ of sexual immorality.
Would you consider intense flirting a way of hinting at a provocative invitation?

There are two ways to be charming; a woman can be genuinely gracious and have a heart to serve or she could have a charm that is seductive, using her feminine powers to draw attention to herself. Proverbs 31:30 speaks to the second kind of charm. What does it say?

Read Proverbs 6:25 What is the advice of the sage Father to his son about the woman who flirts?

Maybe this is all new to you and you have never considered this issue before, then consider this a place to gain awareness of how to conduct yourself for the future.
Are there any ways that your behavior needs to change to avoid sending sensual messages?

Girls Gone Wise Book Blog 7: Appearance

Point of Contrast 7: Appearance

Undressing the Secrets of Clothing

Can you relate to being in an embarrassing situation when some article of your clothing malfunctioned? And to make matters worse, maybe you were not the first person to discover that you were exposed. Maybe you have heard about the woman who was speaking at a meeting; her hurried trip to the restroom just before she took the platform resulted in her accidentally tucking the bottom of her skirt in the back of her panty hose waist band. I can only imagine how mortified she was to make that discovery in front of a large group of people. Being exposed can be miserable and terribly embarrassing. Clothing and issues about our own privacy or exposure are related; but how?

How did this whole idea of wearing clothes get started anyway? If you remember Adam and Eve did not wear clothes in the Garden of Eden at creation. The Scripture says “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Gen. 2:25) So what happened? The serpent promised that if Eve would eat a certain fruit that God had declared “off limits” that she “would be like God, knowing good from evil.”(Gen. 3:5) As you know, Eve did finally eat of the fruit as did Adam and her eyes were opened, and what she discovered brought horror. The new knowledge of good and evil spoiled the innocence and purity of the couple’s relationship with God. They were miserable and embarrassed, ran for cover, sewed fig leaves together, and covered their bodies to try to hide their shame. When God found them cowering in the garden, running from sweet fellowship with Him, He explained the consequences of their sin of trying to be God. They would never be innocent in their naked state again. See Genesis 3 for the whole story.

Mary Kassian writes in GGW “Pre-Fall nakedness symbolized the purity and innocence of humans before God. Post-Fall nakedness symbolizes the inability of humans to make themselves presentable before Him. God did what Adam and Eve were unable to do. He covered them and made them presentable.” p.99 So it’s beginning to make sense; in Genesis 3:21, we see God clothing Adam and Eve in animal skins. God’s provision is profound because it cost the life of an animal and the shedding of blood. This is a window into the future when God would allow His Son’s blood to be shed to cover the sin of His people. So those first “clothes” were a beautiful provision given by God to cover the shame and brokenness of man. They are symbolic of God’s mercy and protection for the need of man that he or she is unable to provide to cover sin. The deep need of forgiveness and being made acceptable can only be met by God.

In the contrast of the Proverbs 7 woman, the writer is telling his son to beware of a woman who is “dressed like a prostitute” (Proverbs 7:10) Mary says that it might be hard for us to tell who this woman is if she showed at a game today because her clothing might not be very different from the other lady fans. Girls who are exposing their skin in shorter and lower cut fashions are using the intimate areas of their bodies to entice attention. Mary’s observation about the Proverbs 7 woman is that she is NOT a prostitute, she just dresses to hook men for what she wants from them. Now that statement brings this whole idea to a critical point for us. God gave clothing to cover, if we are uncovering ourselves to get something we want, the motive might not be so far from the wild woman in Proverbs 7. Exposing our bodies then becomes rebellious, as Mary instructs, this is a means of saying “no” to God’s provision and flaunting what He has said needs to be covered. Clothing is symbolic of our new dignity and forgiveness provided at a great cost by Jesus. There is a lovely freedom in receiving God's gift with humility and gratitude. See Revelation 3:18.

God desires that His girls be lovely; after all He created beauty. The hard part is to keep the focus on Him so that we will be balanced in how we present ourselves. It does not mean you can’t wear pretty or fashionable clothing, but it does mean you need to check out your motives in the clothing you choose. In 1 Timothy 2:9, some advice is given about godly women and their attire. “Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control.” Mary says these three thoughts cut straight the path we need to pursue in the way we dress.

1. Respectable: Is it becoming or unbecoming? Does it fit with who you are as a believer?

2. Modest: Is it decent or indecent? Does the clothing you are wearing grant you proper dignity?

3. Self-Controlled: Is it moderate or excessive? Does your clothing have to be over the top in quality, or name brand or the trendiest fashion? Are you trying to draw attention to yourself sexually or ‘rocking some bling’ to prove your worth?

Designer Insights

Read 1 Peter 3:4 What part of you does God want you adorn or decorate most?

Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 If you really lived out what these verses say, how would it affect your clothing choices?

Read Luke 12:22-30 What is the attitude toward clothes that Jesus teaches His followers to pursue?

Ask the Lord Jesus to help you set guidelines for yourself in choosing your wardrobe to display yourself as a lovely woman of dignity and peace, filled with His love!