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Modest: Not Hottest, but oh-so Beautiful

Being modest is hard. Speaking as a nineteen-year-old Catholic woman who loves fashion, I will tell you first hand that modesty is not easy. You know why? Because skin is in. The media is saturated in images of girls in crop tops and barely there pants. Less and less is being left to the imagination and my generation is being coerced into accepting this sick image of what womanhood and beauty are. Even the term modesty is becoming sexualized. I have heard the phrase “modest is hottest” more times than I can count. It is supposed to be an encouragement to girls to dress modestly because it is “hotter”. Is this the message that we really want to portray? Should women dress modestly because it will make them “hot”? Well I say no way, Jose. Being hot is not a compliment. Food can be hot, Arizona in the summertime can be hot, a heater can be hot… there are many other things that we can rightly call “hot” but I do not believe that people should be one of them. We deserve more than that. The fullness of human beauty is not at all touched by this objectifying phrase. Modesty is more than a fashion statement; It’s a life statement. I think that modesty, now more than ever, is a conscious choice to be who we were created to be. It is the choice to present ourselves as daughters of the king rather than objects. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul says “You must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within-the spirit you have received from God. You are not your own. You have been purchased at a price. So glorify God in your body.”-1Corinthians 6:19-20 The price that we have been purchased at is the death of Christ. Through His death we have been charged with His glory. We are to glorify Him not only in our hearts and souls but also in our bodies. How do we do this? We do it by taking proper care of our bodies and realizing that they are the place where God’s own spirit dwells. We dress modestly not because we are ashamed of our bodies. We dress modestly because we know the great beauty that we carry within us… We dress modestly because we know that we are worth so much more than the shallow attention we will get for doing otherwise. You are so beautiful and so worth every bit of real love that this world has to give. Don’t settle for a lesser love. Don’t settle for the weak, lustful reactions that come with dressing immodestly. You are a temple of Our Lord.  I encourage you to dress modestly because you deserve it. You deserve to be recognized for the depth of your soul not the depth of your neckline. Modesty does not inhibit beauty, it allows it to shine even more brightly. I’ll be praying for you as you embrace this opportunity to become the daughters of the King that you were made to be. God loves you so much and so do I. 1 Corinthians 13 ___________________________

1409596130412 (1) Rebekah Hardy lives in New Jersey and is a sophomore at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland where she majors in Theology and minors in English. She enjoys playing sports, praying the Rosary, and drinking iced coffee. Her blog can be found atcatholiclifesite.wordpress.com and her twitter handle is @bekahhardy7.

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