Posted in My thoughtful thinks :p

  I participated in the Fearlessly Feminine challenge and part of it was to write your story on modesty.

My parents have always insisted on modesty….as I’m sure most of the people reading this can relate to, LOL. Actually, most people I know insist on varying degrees of modesty. but my parents are the only ones that want us girls to wear dresses or skirts rather than jeans or shorts. When I was little, I really didn’t care. I was something of a tomboy (still am, actually: p), but I don’t remember dresses interfering with bike riding, hiking, or anything else I wanted to do. Sometimes, my mom would let us wear pants or shorts if we wanted to do something like climb trees or play in the dirt. So despite my tendency to tomboyishness, (is that even a word? Lol) I didn’t mind wearing dresses. Haha, it’s rather funny looking at old pictures now, because I would be dirty, scuffed up, and wearing a cute pink dress!

   When I was about twelve, I began to dislike wearing them. I have eight siblings, so we cause a small reaction whenever we go to Wal-Mart anyways, but I was even more self-conscious since all six of us girls would be in dresses or skirts. I just knew people saw us and built an immediate stereotype in their minds of an Amish family, living on a farm with no electricity or cars, closed off from the world. And I hated that. It didn’t help that people did ask us if we were Amish. Haha, I’ve been asked if I’m Amish, Mennonite, Mormon, Jewish, Catholic, and I can’t think of any others right now….lol. But that’s off the subject…

       When I was fourteen, we were going to this homeschool co-op where we were the only girls in skirts. One time, one of the teachers there (who also went to our church) held a discussion on modesty. I remember feeling stupid contributing to it, because everyone else was in jeans and I looked like something from the eighteenth century! (Ok, it wasn’t THAT bad, because I did dress somewhat in fashion…but you get the picture, lol.) I went home and stormed out at my mom and told her that all the girls there hated me because I was modest and I hated being different and there was nothing wrong with wearing jeans, yada, yada, yada. The funny thing was, none of the girls hated me; it really was just that I was already sure they were going to because I looked different. I interpreted their friendliness as pity, or I thought they were just being friendly because they had to or their moms told them to under dire threats of groundings for life. My mom didn’t show much sympathy…:p She said that my dad wanted us to look feminine, and while he didn’t necessarily think pants were immodest, he thought girls should look like girls and dresses were a good way to do that. J I got the hint—DON’T ARGUE WITH YOUR FATHER! And so I don’t remember ever outwardly rebelling again.

     But I was still mad and I lived with my angry, rebellious little self for another year before I decided to honor my father. And I realized something. Wearing skirts aren’t so bad, Lol. I mean, I always feel pretty and girly wearing them (well, unless I’m in my tomboy mood!) and when I wear pants for dance, I don’t feel so attractive. And it’s really not hard to do anything in a skirt or dress—I just ran a mile yesterday in a knee-length skirt! (Though I wouldn’t usually; Daddy doesn’t mind us wearing shorts if we’re running or something. Actually, I wouldn’t usually run a mile, either. Haha.) About the only thing I’m not able to do in a skirt is flip over on the monkey bars—which I can’t do anyways…and practice dance, as it’s next to impossible to dance hip-hop modestly in a skirt.

   Sure, I still don’t like being stereotyped. There’s times that I still feel awkward. But it’s kind of fun being different. I actually like walking into Wal-Mart and showing the world that it’s possible to dress fashionably, but modestly, Lol.  I’m still living under my parents’ roof and I’m still under my father’s authority. And until I get married or leave for college, I obey him willingly. 

 

    Personally, though, I don’t think to be modest, you have to wear an ankle length dress and have hair down to your waist. Some people do, and that’s awesome that they have such a standard for themselves. But for myself, I’ve decided that WHAT I wear isn’t necessarily the most important thing. The most important thing is the attitude of my heart. Am I being modest or trying to attract too much attention to myself? Am I trying to be as modest and beautiful as I can be, or am I trying to see how much I can get away with before Daddy sees me?