My poor wife. She is a beautiful woman, quite striking really. Not only that, but she has a striking sense of artistic understanding and style. She knows what looks good and what doesn't. An occasion to dress up is a time for her to use her natural gifts and abilities. One occasion to dress up (for many people) is church. Sadly she married me, a man who has little in the way of style and despises dressing up for church. Because her sense of style says that she can't dress up to much if I don't (something to do with "matching" or some strange concept like that). Thus, she is forced to dress down, against her better wishes.
I find people's view on what is acceptable or good to wear to church very interesting and usually bound by what they experienced as a child (and wether they rebelled against it). I'm also amazed at how some people, if they are quite honest about it, admit to being very aware of what they and others are wearing in church. My thought: who cares? Most people fall into one of two camps; "dress up" or "dress down." Each has good arguments. The "dress up" types believe that going to church is a special occasion and to show God honor. To not do so is not just to show disrespect for those around you but to show disrespect to God himself! When we present ourselves to God, we ought to present our best. Or something like that.
Personally, I fall into the other camp, the "dress down" or "dress comfortable" types. If I dress up I feel like I'm trying to impress people and it distracts me. Also, if I dress up and I think I look good, I could be distracted by thoughts of how awesome I look! This too is not good for a focused worship experience. Also, as mentioned before, there are a lot of people who are way to aware of how everyone looks. Somehow this seems wrong to me, shouldn't we be trying our best to not focus on ourselves and those around us? Jealousy, coveting, disdain, feelings of superiority, worrying about our looks, etc., these are things I'd like to save for another day, thank you very much.
I'm also quite lazy and find dressing nicely takes more time then simply choosing a pair of jeans and a shirt, grabbing my Bible and heading for the door. It's a rare day if it takes me more then one minute to choose what I'm going to wear in the morning. I guess my motto(s) would be "come as you are" and "humble thyself in the sight of the Lord." I know that I can never understand the other side of the fence (those who feel it honors God to dress up), but I can understand their viewpoint. I wonder what the breakdown is "dress downers" to "dress uppers?" Check out my poll on the sidebar and we'll find out.
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7 comments:
as long as we love and obey him, i'm pretty sure that god does not care about what we wear to church.
Tornado,
I have issues with "God" not being capitalized because "god" can be anything.
Mark,
For myself, how I dress reflects how I feel. For church, clean and tidy does it for me. By the way, how do you dress for work, school, clients? I agree with Tornado...I don't think God has issues with our sense of style but why not dress for you wife when you go to church? Perhaps thinking of dressing in terms of who you are dressing for would make more sense, and in this case you could dress for your wife instead of everyone else. If your wife is a stay at home Mom, church may be one of the few places your wife goes where she can dress up. Just a thought.
As a female I do understand your wife's reluctance to dress up when you are dressed down.
Speaking as a stay at home Mom, I like to dress down for church. I agree with you that if I dress up, I tend to spend more time being focused on how good I look and what everyone else is wearing instead of being focused on God. Since I started wearing my favorite pair of jeans and a clean (and possibly ironed but not always) shirt to church, I'm more comfortable and I can be free to concentrate on worship. I wonder if part of it depends on how comfortable you are in dress clothes in the first place? I've never been a person who liked to dress up. My Mom on the other hand, is always dressed up and I don't think is capable of being quite as shleppy (not sure if that's a word) as me.
Jobina, if you are more comfortable dressing up, you go girl! It's about you being comfortable and able to concentrate. If Mark doesn't match, tell him to go sit with the casual people ;)
Love you both!
Michele
I am of the dress down variety myself, though I draw the line at wearing my cap to church even though I really don't want to do my hair. :)
Along this discussion line, do you notice how on television/movies whenever a church scene is depicted everyone is dressed up? Not even just a shirt and tie, it's usually full on suit and tie for the guys. I wonder if this is a stumbling block for some people where they get the "stuffy" impression of church? I'd love to see a church scene in the media were people see it's okay to come in casual clothes. I know when I was a kid I thought you had to dress up for church (I didn't go to church as a kid, I should add), but there were a couple times where I thought of going but one thing I thought was I didn't have any clothes for church.
Jay
i felt the same way when i was younger. whenever i went to church i always saw the older men wearing a shirt and tie (as well as a pair of pants and shoes) so i thot that to be accepted into the congregation i had to do the same thing. but then i saw people my age wearing a tshirt and jeans and i thot to myself "i guess god doesn't care about our clothes".
There are so many clothes out there that I love but have no chance to wear because I'm at home on my hands and knees cleaning up toys or playing or I'm in the kitchen getting who-knows-what on them. Church is one of the few places where I am upright or sitting, therefore, I wear clothes that are nice for those two actions. I like to dress up to go to the mall too, or out for coffee or dinner. Does that mean that my soul purpose is to impress those around me or that suddenly I'm just thinking about myself and how I look? I don't think so. God doesn't care if I dress up or down, so one week you may see me in jeans and the next I may be in nice pants and a blazer or (shocker!) a skirt. Let's chalk it up to this, people like to look nice sometimes. (I would edit this to make it sound nicer and like I'm not mad, because I'm not. I'm just tired and quickly commenting before trucking it to bed.) ;o)
that's how my dad is too. from april to about october or november he's always up at the peat moss plant (just past Beaver Creek Bible Camp) working, so whenever he goes out to the store, or to church or whenever we go to winnipeg he always gets dressed up.
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