Paul Washer on modesty

“Here are some very important questions that I always ask young men. Are you attracted to her biblical beauty or are you attracted to her sensuality? Sensuality proceeds from a wicked heart. In Mark 7:21-23 For from within, out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, fornication, thefts, murders, adultery, deeds of covetousness, wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, evil, slander, pride, and foolishness. Also sensuality is a deed of the flesh. Galatians 5:19 The deeds of the flesh are evident which are immorality, impurity, sensuality. A woman can properly be called beautiful. A women can properly be called elegant. But a woman who is sensual has an evil heart.”

“I do not so much have to pray up when I’m preaching under a tent in inner-city San Antonio, but I have to pray up and know that I am walking with the Lord when I walk into an average Baptist church because of the way most people dress. And you say, “It’s legalism.” No it’s not. They’re commands in the Bible. It doesn’t say we’re all supposed to dress like a Puritan, but it does say we’re supposed to be decent and cause no offense or stumbling. “Well you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Yes you can! Jesus said you can; by their fruits you will know them.”

“Modesty is rarely seen in this generation of Christians. Many who claim Christ are as uncovered, lewd, and brazen as the world.”

“This is going to make you mad, and I’m talking to boys and girls. Radical Christians are those who do not dress sensually in order to show off their bodies. If your clothing is a frame for your face, God is pleased with your clothing. If your clothing is a frame for your body, it’s sensual and God hates what you’re doing.”

Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash

Quote From “Female Piety” by John Angell James

“True piety, instead of setting aside a single female excellence—clothes all female virtues with a Divine sanction—harmonizes the demands of God with the claims of man—converts the ordinary duties of domestic life into a means of preparation for that glorious world where the social ties no longer exist—and softens the cares, anxieties, and sorrows, with which woman’s lot in this world is but too often sadly oppressed. Whatever else a woman may be—without true piety, she is lamentably deficient. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting.” The face of a beautiful woman ought to be an index of the mind; and when all is beautiful on the outside—all should be glorious within. Never does outer beauty and elegance appear more revolting—than when seen united with an ill-furnished mind and an ill-favored heart. And yet how often do elegance of manners, and loveliness of person, conceal dispositions which are in total opposition to them, and bitterly disappoint the man who has been captivated by them—and who in his choice of a wife, has been led by no other considerations than mere external beauty and personal charms!”

Simple Things by Grace Noell Crowell

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through a door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain’s blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things–old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

Photo by Jude Infantini on Unsplash