Teaching Purity to the Next Generation

Recently my husband instituted what the boys have now termed “man clothes”. You can read about that here. Basically my boys are now “dressing” head to toe each day in pants and collared shirts. They look quite nice, and it is amazing how this one little change has affected their attitude toward work and school.

When they began to do this I started feeling a bit inappropriately dressed in my pants and jeans. So, just for kicks, I threw on a long skirt and cute top one day and went through my day as usual. Not only did I feel a bit more feminine, but my attitude seemed better and I just felt better. (It didn’t hurt that my husband commented on how nice I looked!) Now, I pretty much wear skirts every day. My husband actually prefers this, and I have come to prefer it as well. I still wear my pants every now and again, but honestly it has become the exception rather than the rule.

Modesty will look different from family to family, but take some time to think about how you dress. Do you dress to impress? If so, who are you trying to impress and why? Will what you are wearing cause undo attention? Check your motives and your heart when you check your lipstick one last time before you go out the door.

Oftentimes we don’t think of purity in terms of what comes out of our mouths, but we should! The tongue is sharper than a two-edged sword. Are our words used in building people up or tearing them down? Gossip, slander, rudeness, ugliness – these are all corrupt uses of our words. Even words that are simply unkind or selfish can corrupt the spirit.

This is an area that unfortunately I tend to struggle in. I wouldn’t consider myself a rude or nasty person by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes I speak before truly thinking about the words that come out of my mouth. I am working on this and praying for the Lord to give me more discernment and discretion in the words that I say.

This, to me, is a BIGGIE. I truly think it is the catalyst of everything else I’ve mentioned. If you are thinking on the things above, then it helps keep your motives in check for everything else. Thinking on these things helps keep us pure in heart.

Purity is having the mindset of Christ. PERIOD. If we are truly living a life of purity then we are putting on Christ daily. There is nothing legalistic about that. It is truth. Simply align yourself with Christ in how you dress, how you act, what you watch, what you say, what you think, and what you do every day, because true purity comes when you put on the fullness of Christ.