Are You a Cadillac?
Written by Rachel Friday, 30 May 2008 00:00
Let’s play a game. I say a word; you say the first thing that pops into your head. Ready? Here’s the word-- modest. What are you thinking?
Whether you've thought about it or not, as women, we have a unique, God-given beauty. But we don’t need to advertise it. According to Tina Marie, dressing modestly makes us like Cadillac’s in a pickup truck world.[1] Cadillac has come to mean top-quality. Guys want a Cadillac. Some drive a pickup truck in high school, but the classy guys hold out for something of value. They save themselves for the day they can marry a “Cadillac,” the purchase of a lifetime. Pickup truck drivers are too nearsighted to save for a Cadillac. We need to hold out for a guy who is interested in one Cadillac and has saved himself for his wife. If we dress modestly boys will respect us for who we are. They won’t view us as girls who need to advertise. Boys who want Cadillacs will see that we have value and will respect us for it. When we dress modestly, we are saving the most powerful part of our beauty for one man, our future husband. We show the world that we are waiting for one man and that we are not going to give ourselves away to anyone who glances at us.
A
boy who responded to an online discussion I started said, “Girls, keep
an air of mystery around. Guys like it…dress for the kind of guy you
want in the long run…Most girls aren't mysterious. That's the problem.
They let everything show, (both emotional and physical) and so there's
nothing left to chase after. Guys love the chase and the adventure.”
[2] For the moment it may seem like this is not true. It may seem like
only girls who dress to seduce get the guy’s attention. In the long run
however, if you dress modestly, you will attract the kind of guy you
want. He will feel honored that you saved the most powerful part of
your beauty for him.
Not only are there many benefits to
dressing modestly, but there are consequences for not doing so. If we
dress immodestly we will tempt guys to think lustfully. Even Christian
guys will be tempted. Jesus said that, “…anyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” [3] By
choosing to dress immodestly we could cause someone to commit adultery
with us in their heart. Yikes!
One Christian boy put it this
way, “A guy could be minding his own business, even thinking about
something he learned in Bible study last night, and *whoosh* here comes
a girl with a more-than-too-low neckline...what is this guy thinking
about now? Hmmm...I wonder.”[4]
Another boy said, “I really
struggle when they [girls] wear something that is too revealing or too
tight. God designed females to be attractive and beautiful, not slutty
and provocative. It gets really frustrating when I see a girl who is
obviously wanting the wrong kind of attention and is trying to get my
eyes stuck on her.”[5]
At first these comments might
frustrate us girls. Why can’t they just keep their mind on last night’s
Bible study? It’s hard for us to understand because our minds are
different from guys’. When we see a guy wearing his pants way too low
we’re disgusted, but we don’t usually think about it any longer. We
have to remember that God designed male and females differently. The
two young men I quoted above aren’t the only guys who want girls to
dress modestly. They aren’t the only ones who have to fight temptation.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, said, “I want women to dress modestly
with decency and propriety...” [6] Job was another man who found this
issue to be important. God said about Job, “There is no one on earth
like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns
evil.” [7] Yet, he still had to make a covenant with his eyes not to
look at a girl lustfully.[8] The authors of For Young Women Only
said, “Why would Job need to take such a step? Surely, the ‘finest man
in all the earth’ wouldn’t even have this struggle, right? Wrong. Job
was a man. And all males are prone to this vulnerability, whether we
like it or not.” [9]
As Christian girls we should desire to
honor God even with how we dress. God never asks us to do anything to
keep us from enjoying our existence. He knows what is best for us,
loves us, and wants us to make wise choices. Dressing modestly is just
one of many ways that we can honor God with our bodies.
So
what happens when a girl chooses to dress modestly? She saves the power
of her beauty for one man, her husband. She becomes a Cadillac that
guys find attractive, beautiful, and worthy of respect. She avoids
tempting guys to commit adultery in their heart. Best of all, she
honors God with the way she dresses. As a daughter of the King of
kings, dare to be Cadillac in a pickup truck world.
[1] Tina Marie Holewinski
(model/actor/speaker), uses the analogy of Cadillac’s and Lamborghinis
to explain the importance of dressing modestly. Note: The Cadillac
verses pickup truck analogy is only an analogy about modesty and does
not express an anti pickup truck sentiment of the author, or that the
author thinks that pickup truck drivers are bad, or that the author
thinks that Cadillac drivers are wonderful.
[2] Anonymous post on Modesty discussion thread at Generation Joshua website.
[3] Matthew 5:28 NIV
[4] Anonymous post on Modesty discussion thread at Generation Joshua website.
[5] Anonymous post on Modesty discussion thread at Generation Joshua website.
[6] 1 Timothy 2:8-10 NIV
[7] Job 1:8 NIV
[8] Job 31:1 NIV
[9] Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa A. Rice, For Young Women Only (Sisters, Oregon, Multnomah Publishers, 2006), p. 101
 Larissa Hine | |
| About the author: | |
| Larissa is 23 and lives in Massachusetts. She's currently between college and graduate school which she hopes to start in the Fall of 2008. She grew up a Christian and has gone through periods where she's been less serious or more serious though she's never fallen away completely. She usually has too many hobbies/projects going on. | |
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