A Journal of a Broken Personality

I'm learning how to dress Godly

I'm Learning, I'm learning how to dress Godly

"Miri you look different." That's what old acquaintances tell me when they meet me now. You see....

I've come a long way in fully understanding the requirements of a Godly Woman and one of them is dressing. Growing up I remember wearing shorts, spaghetti tops, mini dress's but that was because we were living in Europe and in the western world it was considered normal. But everything changed when our family returned to our home land. My parents were not that strict with our dressing. The one who really gave an uproar was my maternal grandmother and indeed she was right considering the time and place for I was in the village.

Shorts and short skirts were always my fashion, so as a child I could get away with it but somehow it took a change when I became a teenager, my mother would soon join my grandmother by saying to cover up, "no shorts in the house have some respect for your brothers and father" She was right but I didn't see it that way.

In my latter years of High school, I had different phases which I look back and all I can say is "Miri what were you thinking" but I guess I can say I lived a little. I had a goth emo phase where I dyed my hair black, pierced my nose wore black cloths was so into rock music, I had a Madonna phase, a Michael Jackson phase and even an Elvis Presley phase. Whatever music craze I was in to it took a toll on my dressing and soon enough it echoed through my character.

By the time I was 18 I was working. I began to find my personal sense of style and fashion, yes my grandmother and mother would now and again remind me to cover up, not so stern as before but still reminding me to be respectable, sadly as the years went by they got used to it for I knew how to get my own way. Mini Shorts, short dresses, tight fitting were the norm, then the crop top phase came in long skits and high thigh slits and because I was working out in the gym and seeing fantastic results I got more confident to show off my body.

When Jesus crossed my life in 2016, it was as if a blind fell from my eyes. I realized how ridiculous I used to dress, I really thought to feel beautiful I had to show a little here and there and to get a compliment reassured my self-esteem that "yes Miri you are beautiful". We live in a world where clothing now depicts what is beautiful or sexy and most girls fall for it, and especially when we want to attract the opposite sex.

Once I understood my value in God I understood the value of me that's when the change began, I remember going through my wardrobe and throwing out my mini dress's and short and surprisingly I realized that I had very little left to wear. I didn't throw it out because" I'm a Christian" or that now that I was walking with the Lord I had to dress a certain way, I threw it out because I finally saw the value of me. I used to feel confident when a little cleavage was shown or legs being bare but now I felt naked, I felt like my body was on an exhibition.

No longer did I feel sexy but I felt like my body was my privacy and the eyes of people were violators. I've invested in some beautiful long dresses or if I had a short dress I'd pare it up with a sulu-ira ( A long skirt underneath the dress) or wear a panty hose. I can finally say that I felt TRULY beautiful, I felt classy clean yes CLEAN, weird as it sounds I felt clean. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "Or do you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God with your body and in your spirit which are Gods". The knowledge of God buying my body with a price and that I should glorify him with it because I was his temple for the Holy Spirit gave me insights and conviction that the Holy powerful Almighty God chose to dwell in men, that's why I chose to change my wardrobe I wanted to be beautiful and conservative to cater for his presence.

I see my mother silently smile when she sees me dressed up and yes there are days I do wear shorts but not as a normal wear but depending on the occasion and place. My body is Holy and with the knowledge of that then clothing must be holy. No one can tell you how to dress I should know because my own mother and grandmother tried to, all it takes is that one moment with Christ that he sets you free from the blinds of the devil to see your yourself through his eyes, that's when the change comes.

1 Peter3: 3 "Do not let your adornment be merely outward arranging the hair, wearing gold or putting on fine apparel- rather let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God" Women's clothing can be such a distraction, it can be a form of idolatry and yes feed our pride. One thing I realized women can be obsessed about is their hair. We women can really put so much effort and attention to it that we can transform it into crown and actual crown representing our pride.

Jewelry, matching earrings and necklace, bracelets to rings, we begin to adorn ourselves and become materialistic in doing so we begin to shop and shop and we begin to covert we want more and more soon we have become so egotistical that we focus on our outer appearance that we forget what truly matters and we rot on the inside. We pay so much attention on how we look rather than building our character the Godly way.

"A GENTLE and QUIET spirit" that is what is precious to God. Not our elaborate looks, he is not a man to look at the outside, exactly how the Lord told Samuel when looking at the sons of Jessie. He looks at the heart. How do we enquire that? It's about spending time in his presence, studying the word and obeying his commandments and before you know it the Holy Spirit transform you from within. The glorious part is God is so wonderful to transform you from inside out. When people do see you they see something different and that difference is Jesus Christ himself.

I'm Learning, I'm learning how to dress Godly