Be Ye Clean, that Bear the Vessels of the Lord (Part One)

Brace yourselves. This is going to be a long post. . . .

I was listening to President Monson's talk The Three Rs of Choice from the Priesthood Session of this past General Conference. Actually, I wasn't really listening to it, just kind of playing it in the background while I worked on memorizing my lines for my upcoming play. Anyway, as the talk ended I heard the words "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord". I stopped, paused the audio, and looked up that scripture. It comes from Isaiah chapter 52, verse 11. I read that two or three times. Suddenly, my thoughts turned to my personal modesty. It was strange, in way, because President Monson's talk had next to nothing to do with modesty - as it was from the Priesthood session. Still, I couldn't get my mind off of that topic. It's beautiful, the way the Spirit of the Lord works. I read the whole fifty-second chapter of Isaiah, and a couple other verses caught my attention:

1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into the the . . . unclean.

13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

There is a footnote by prudently and looking at it took me to the Topical Guide and to the word modesty, which led me to a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants chapter 42, verse 40. This is what it says:

And again, thou shalt not be proud in thy heart; let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hands.

That led my mind to think a million things at once. What can I do to be even more modest? Should I buy less storebought clothing and work on sewing my own? Is it pleasing to the Lord to see His daughters dress so much like the world, even when they believe they are truly modest? Have I really been dressing modestly - the way my Father in Heaven wants me to dress? Would I feel comfortable being in the presence of my Savior, or even the Prophet, wearing the clothes I have? And, what about pants, and other clothing that is much like what men wear?

I've never been one to dress immodestly - I've always tried to dress appropriately and to look refined in anything I wear. My skirts and dresses always reach below my knees, my tops always have sleeves and are high enough and long enough to never be revealing, and all of my clothes are fitting, but loose. I wear camis and undershirts with everything, just in case. I thought I felt modest.

However, reading those scriptures caused me to ponder on my many immodesties:

1) Tops with words and images. These can distract my acquaintances and instead of inviting them to look at my face, they can tempt them to look lower than is appropriate. I want people see my face, see my light, to look at me, and not my body.

2) Bare legs, instead of nylons. Even if the skirts of my dresses come down below my knee, bare legs can still be tempting. Simply showing off your ankles was considered inappropriate years ago. Showing so much skin distracts from the real person and can even tempt sexual desires. Nylons cover me a bit more and take the focus away from my legs.

3) Tops that are meant to be much too low, even with an undershirt. I don't think that wearing a cami under a top to make sure that it is definitely high enough, when the top is already close to being modest, is wrong. But, when an undershirt makes up half the top . . . I don't think there is anything right with that. Just putting an undershirt under a top that is supposed to actually go down to the middle of your chest does not make it modest. The shirt should be completely modest, or 99.9% modest before your put on your layers. I think wearing something that is already way too low, and adding an undershirt, is essentially saying, "This top is from the world, and I know it really isn't modest, but I can just wear a cami under it and it will be okay." When the intention of the clothing is immodesty to begin with, I don't think a cami or undershirt will make it any better. And the same goes for sleeveless tops - definitely. I don't want to have one hand in the world and one hand on the Rod, I want both hands held tightly to the Rod.

4) Showing underclothing. This is a big one for me. My dear mother has always tried to teach me that undershirts are simply that - under clothing. I have never really agreed with her though. What's so bad about showing off my other layers? Well, I'm beginning to see now that showing off underclothing is very inappropriate. The simple "layers" we wear today were once considered to be actual underwear - and everyone knows that no one wants to see that.

5) Tops that are too wide at the shoulders. I'm not sure why I had such a problem with this one. I really didn't want people to see my straps, but the top was so cute and I just had to wear it! Even if I was showing off a part of my underclothing. It didn't matter much, did it? Yes, it did. Wearing a top like that is much too revealing, and absolutely not modest. Go back to number 4 in this list and you'll understand the rest of my feelings on this subject.

6) Tops or dresses with cap sleeves. Well, it's modest if it has sleeves at least, isn't it? No, I don't think it is. Cap sleeves tend to show off too much of your underarm, and that is in no way appealing, and fairly revealing as well.

Our purpose here on Earth is learn how to become like God, to be gods and goddesses, or my favorite way of putting it, Kings and Queens. How can I be a Queen when I dress sloppy, too casual, immodest, and in a way, carefree? True Queens never wear shirts with the straps of their underclothing hanging out, dresses that attract too much attention to parts of their bodies that are sacred and special, and they don't wear tight-fitting jeans with distracting designs on the back pockets. . . .

Which leads me to my next thoughts on women's modesty . . .

but you're going to have to read that tomorrow.

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment on this post and let me know what you think about modesty, and what I've said (please be nice to me), then come back tomorrow and read my thoughts on women and pants. ;)

{You can read Part Two here}

{A note: this post is simply my personal opinion, and I am by no means saying that every girl should dress the way I am suggesting. Your definition of modesty may be quite different than mine, and that is completely fine. I do urge my readers to ponder on the way they dress and present themselves, though, and then bring the matter to your Father in Heaven and ask Him what He desires of you.}