Tag: soul needs

How could you dress modestly when you have curves? I try my hardest but I always end up showing a little and most skirts fit me tight around the butt and hips area :( help?

proverbs31v25:

In 1 Timothy 2:9-10, the apostle Paul writes “I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” The Greek word translated “modesty” here is kosmios. Derived from kosmos (the universe), it signifies orderliness, self-control and appropriateness. I think its really useful understand what modesty actually means before diving into an answer. I used to think modesty mean ankle length skirts and baggy tops, but it doesn’t. Dressing modestly is about dressing in an appropriate, self revering way. Biblical modesty isn’t about managing the sexual impulses of other people; it’s about cultivating humility, propriety and deference within ourselves.

Given the context of the verses, I think Paul’s trying to tell us that our adornment ought to be becoming on a number of different levels. First and foremost, your clothing ought to be becoming, fitting to, and consistent with your character as a child of God. But it also ought to be becoming to your body type, as you’ve already mentioned, thus becoming to your femininity, becoming to your husband, becoming to the other clothes you are wearing, and becoming to the occasion and place you intend to wear it.  Find something that makes you comfortable. Find something that gives you the freedom to run and lounge about in (well, if you are me anyway!) And the truth is, a man can choose to objectify a woman whether she’s wearing a bikini or a burqa. We don’t stop lust by covering up the female form; we stop lust by teaching men to treat women as human beings worthy of respect.

I know, I know, I know. It would be soooooo much easier to have some kind of  universal dress code that would make all of this simpler, we aren’t given one. Perhaps this is why Paul encouraged women to “adorn themselves with good deeds,” and why the valorous woman of Proverbs 31 is praised because “she clothes herself in strength and dignity.” (ey ey ey url) At the end of the day, the most important things we project to the world are strength, dignity and good deeds; the sort of things that transcend culture, circumstance, and clothing. 

On a more practical note, skater skirts and dresses can be modest and comfortable. And honestly lovely, God understands that it is difficult. He doesn’t expect us to dress like nuns, he just wants us to dress in a way that glorifies him.

brydeewrites:

I’m clinging to the promise that the Lord has not finished with me yet. I will walk through the hard times, through the struggle and the pain, because I know I am not alone in those times. And I know that the Lord is working all things together for my good, even when I can’t see it, and when I struggle to believe it. He is not finished with me. 

worshipgifs:

sadmomhair:

things i learned after straying away from God for a bit:

  • i am not as strong as i like to believe
  • you’re never too far gone
  • there’s a reason God has been telling you to forgive those people. it feels good 
  • the people, music, movies, and books you surround yourself with shape you more than you realize
  • i really missed talking to Him

I have a miserable life without him

Jesus says we have to be perfect, how do you be perfect? Also 1 peter 1:16 says ” be holy for I am holy “. Is that also Jesus saying we have to be perfect?

realjoyismine:

proverbs31v25:

It is true that the Bible calls us to be “perfect as [our] heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The Greek word for “perfect” here is telios. It means “brought to its end, completed, or perfect.” (defo had to look that one up!) So, to be “perfect” in this sense is not how perfectionists so often imagine it. Rather, it is to be completed in Christ. Philippians 1:6 says that completion is the work of God. He created us, saved us, and is faithful to perfect us.

This verse came to mind: “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9. In our strength, we can never be Christ like, we can never be perfect. But the thing is, we don’t have to do it alone. His grace is sufficient. His power is made perfect in our weaknesses, faults and shortcomings. But, this process of becoming more like Christ is known as sanctification. Its basically where God takes our lives and points us in a more and more Christ like direction. In him, we’re given a living blueprint for taking hold of our newly cleaned up lives.  We must cooperate with God’s work in us (His perfection of us)—see Philippians 2:12. We are called to live godly lives and to submit to God. But the focus of the Bible’s commands is not on others’ perception of us, as is so often the idol of the perfectionist. Instead, the focus is on our heart’s posture toward God.

I’ve always heard perfect explained as “mature.” Be mature. I think that’s always going to be a process. Keep reading, keep praying, keep consciously following God’s will. Keep growing, because there will always be something to grow on. I think of Phillipians 3:15

“Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”

Above this, Paul is talking that he is not perfect, that he has not apprehended. That he is always pressing toward the mark. Yet then he goes on to tell those who are perfect to be of the same mind, and then to allow God to show them where they are not.

Jesus in Matthew 5:48 also says to be perfect at the beginning of the sermon on the mount, and a lot of that is talking about going beyond the law—-not necessarily following the letter of it (though they should and much of it we should!), but the heart of it (God’s love, and the summation of the commands: Love God and love our neighbors).

In 1 Kings 8:61, Solomon talks about being perfect before God. Before that, he is talking about inclining our hearts toward God, about following after him in righteousness, and knowing for ourselves and letting others know that He is the only God.

So perfection is leaning toward God as a person, holding a relationship with him. Loving him. Allowing Him to continue cleansing you as an individual, because we are not perfect. Following his will.

Perfection is depending on God’s perfection to help us to be Christians—-Christ-like—-in every way.

What made me love Christ wasn’t that all of a sudden I started figuring out how to do life. What made me love Christ is that when I was at my worst, when I was at my lowest point, when I absolutely could not clean myself up and there was nothing anybody could do with me, right at that moment, Christ said, “I’ll take that one. That’s the one I want.

Matt Chandler, Relevant Magazine (via spoopymaverick)
Source: worshipgifs