Wanna Be a Steader!

Serious Faith Bible Study ~ Modesty, Clothing & God

As the mom of teen daughters, I'm VERY concerned with the issue of modesty and the condition of their hearts toward God ~ as the condition of their hearts affects their attitudes of dress.  This is a real test of being "in the world but not of it."  Training them in not leading a Christian brother, no matter how attracted you might be to him, into sin because what you're wearing makes him think impure thoughts.  (Like teens really need help in that dept!) 

It IS possible to dress "trendy" but modestly.  It IS hard, but possible.  As I have written about before, when I'm shopping with/for my teen girls and there is NOTHING but "hooker wear" to choose from, I ask to speak to the manager - both of the dept AND the store.  I also ask them to pass this on to their buyers.  (I spent 8 years in retail - I KNOW that they listen.  They don't LIKE to, but they listen.)  I BEG YOU to do this!!  When I was in retail, I had a great manager who told us that if a person writes a letter of complaint, it represents 5-7 people; BUT if they actually took the time to personally complain, it represented 15!!  YOU can GREATLY effect what goes into your dept stores!!  The problem is...NO ONE IS DOING IT!!!  Or at least, not enough are doing it. 

When I talk to a manager, or if I'm "lucky" enough to happen upon the buyer visiting the store that day, I ask them to AT LEAST have a little corner of trendy-but-modest clothes.  When I get the glassy, oh-you-have-GOT-to-be-kidding-me-lady look, I go for the wallet!  "You know, you are missing a HUGE market.  Not everyone wants their teens (or pre-teens) to dress like hookers and not every parent lacks the spine to tell their teens/kids 'no, you can't wear that.'"  When you mention the $$, you can see the wheels start to turn in the brain behind their eyes.  I figure, if you can't reason with them regarding what's modest vs. tacky, then go for the big bucks! 

I personally know for a fact that this has worked with Old Navy.  A few years ago I had a similar conversation with a local store manager and told her about the market they were missing.  Know what?  She said, "We KNOW that!  I JUST came back from a regional meeting and next season we're going to start selling jean/pants with different waiste heights."  And if you go into an Old Navy you will see that they are!  IT WORKS!!  They hear us when we speak with our $$...if nothing else.

Ok...all that to say this...I receive a great e-Bible devotional from SeriousFaith.com.  This week's series is on "Modesty, Clothing & God."  Excellent.  As this is Tuesday, only the 1st 2 of this week's series are currently posted, but you can check in and read the others each day as they are put up.  For now, you may read part 1 at:  http://www.seriousfaith.com/teaching_detail.asp?teachingnumber=440 and part 2 at:  http://www.seriousfaith.com/teaching_detail.asp?teachingnumber=441. 

I'm using these with my girls, I believe it would be appropriate to use with pre-teen/teen boys, too.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><