By Cary Gillis
With warmer months quickly approaching, I have a plea for my Christian sisters:
Though I am weak and imperfect, I strive for a pure and holy life, mind, and heart. But it is difficult. I struggle with lust. I know of no man, single or married, who does not struggle with this. It is more difficult for your Christian brothers than you could ever imagine. Our minds are totally different than yours when it comes to visual stimuli. I do not expect the world to care if my thoughts are pure. But I expect you to care. I expect you to cherish the faithfulness of your brothers. This is why it breaks my heart when I see Christian women wearing what the world deems appropriate, but what God deems immodest.
By the decision of what clothes to put on your body, you’re deciding either to be my ally in purity or my enemy in purity. Before you put on anything, ask if it would help me or hinder me in my personal struggle to keep my heart focused on holy things. I want to be very clear with you. If you wear short shorts or skirts, tight pants (yoga pants!!), low-cut tops, and tops that show a lot of skin, much less swimwear that covers as much skin as underwear, you have chosen NOT to be my ally in fighting against lust and striving toward purity. You may be oblivious to this; I don’t assume the worst about you.
This is not about control, or preference, or what’s cute, or what’s practical, or about what the (unChristian) world thinks. This is about you prioritizing our shared faithfulness. The world does not care about this. But my hope is that my Christian sisters would not knowingly run roughshod over the weaknesses of their brothers.
We need your help to be the men that we are struggling to be! There is nothing more beautiful than a woman who inspires holy and wholesome thoughts within the heart of a man. I’m not calling for everyone to wear burlap sacks. But if you are confused about the type of clothing I have specified, ask a mature, faithful, wise sister her opinion. I can direct you to a few.
Too many Christian parents fail to instill this value in their children. I honestly cannot understand why, other than the thought that they have just been deceived and their consciences seared by the world’s standard of appropriateness. Living a faithful and holy life will often make you peculiar and unpopular. But that should be irrelevant to us. This is not a reprimand. This is a plea for help. Be my ally in purity and faithfulness to God. Let’s help each other go to heaven together.