Can't Be Forgotten

In her book, Beauty and the Best, author Beneth Peter Jones begins her first chapter with this comment:

"The twentieth century Christian girl or woman exists in a spiritually-foreign environment: a world shadowed by sin's darkness; a world where the bizarre is applauded and the beautiful is ridiculed; where earth's inhabitants bear out God's prophetic description."

Did you catch the truth in that statement? To sum it up, we as Christian ladies truly aren't at home here. While the devil is the god of this world, we are in enemy territory. And I think the most common (and effective) tool the devil has used is feministic thinking. But God has called us to be beautiful and feminine... therefore it is an attainable goal!

Well, it just so happens that today I attended an old-fashioned festival with a friend. She was in a jean skirt and t-shirt and I was in a khaki skirt with a button down shirt. As we walked around the various stands (including an ox roasting over an open fire, a wheat separator being run by a steam engine, bonnets, and quilts:D), we noticed several ladies and girls in skirts. While this is not an unusual sight at church, it is at a public place such as this festival. We both commented on it, but soon began to notice less-than-modest tops accompanying these pretty skirts. A suspicion popped in my mind that there was a *forced* rule regarding the girls and ladies to be in skirts. Being the blunt person that I am, I walked over to a vendor (who was wearing a very pretty skirt!) and asked if they were *required* to wear skirts. She let out a hugh sigh as she said yes, noting that the skirts were so "cumbersome" and "inconvenient". I could tell that if she had the choice, she would probably be in shorts and a tank top or something along those lines. My friend and I walked away, thinking how we wear skirts all the time and really don't find them "cumbersome" or "inconvenient". But I thought about what Mrs. Jones wrote and how this woman is not fully flourishing under her God-given responsibility to be all God wants her to be for His glory. Later on in the day we met a lady who was wearing a lovely dress with cute sunflower earrings who seemed to radiate God's love. Again, my blunt nature rose to the top as I inquired whether she was a Christian. She certainly was and it was obvious she took delight in feminine beauty. Two ladies at the same festival, but with different viewpoints.

Mrs. Jones concludes her first chapter with this astute observation: "These are matters which the unsaved world would never consider - but which the save woman or girl must never forget!"

While this topic may seem to be *hotly debated*, it all comes down to the fact that we are to be different from the world (Peter uses the word "peculiar") and I need to remember that God wants me to exhibit feminine beauty. That's something that can't ever be forgotten.