Sunday Inspirations November 15, 2009

I love it when a post comes ready-made.

Back near the end of 2007 I received a call from Church Magazines (those printed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) saying they wanted to publish one of the articles they'd purchased from me some time ago. It would be printed in the New Era, a magazine geared towards teens within our church.

I was beyond delighted, and subsequently crushed when only a month before it was to be published the beloved president of our worldwide church passed away. He had been such an inspiration to me over many years' time, and the article was forgotten in heartache and change.

After a very bad week, and feeling as though nothing could possibly lift my mood, my Heavenly Father gave me a sweet, sweet blessing: my article on modesty was published in the November New Era (link will be provided later).

I'm a big proponent of modesty, as I have seen how the way we dress can affect the personna we portray. In other words, we act the way we dress. If our clothing is full of holes, wrinkles and has an overall appearance of shabbiness, our attitudes will easily turn to laziness, uncouth behaviors, and can come off as simply not caring.

If our clothes look as though they've come off the most expensive rack, our jewelry comes off gaudy and overdone, and we put more care into what's on our outside than our inside, this will seep into our behavior as well. How many times have we been warned through scripture how the love of fine silks and gold been involved in the downfall of entire nations?

One thing we have to worry about the most, in particular with our pre-teens and youth, is the issue of modesty. This was brought foremost to my mind - and that of other youth leaders I was working with - a few years ago when we began to have a problem with certain teen girls dressing in ways that were simply not appropriate.

At that same time there was a special get-together put on for teens on how to check one's clothes for modesty, and how to help fix those clothes that were not so modest. The couple who were asked to speak were both LDS, though the husband - a fashion designer - had been converted. With his conversion came a desire to make modest and stylish clothes.

After this talk the president of our young women began taking many of them "shopping" for modesty. She would have them pick out a few outfits, would have them stand in front of the provided mirrors and played a game of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." You'll hear more about this in the article.

It opened the eyes of a lot of our young teens, not to mention the leaders as well. I was so inspired by the influence this one little act had on many of our girls, and have strived to teach my children the same principles.

If we want to have the Holy Spirit close to us, we need to follow the guidelines the Father has set up for us, and this includes dressing modestly.

So follow me over to read what playing one simple game can do help us remember to dress in a way that will please our Heavenly Father.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes