Modesty

Hey guys!  I was asked to speak on modesty in sacrament meeting a couple months back-- Here's the final product!

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Imagine if you could spend a few minutes one on one with the prophet, what would you say?  What would you ask?  Imagine what that experience would be like. 

While vacationing with their family in Hawaii, two sisters planned to meet some boys at the beach.  After being out with their family for the day, they snuck back up to their hotel room and changed from their appropriate swim attire into some bootlegged bikinis. 

As they excitedly raced to the elevator and began their journey down, a guest, whom both girls recognized, joined them on the tenth floor.  President Spencer W. Kimball boarded the elevator, and the three of them rode down to the bottom floor.  The young women moved to the back corner of the elevator and tried to cover themselves with the one towel they had planned to share to dry off.  As they hid their faces and tried to cover their bodies they didn’t say a word to the prophet.  After spending a few silent minutes with the prophet, he exited the elevator and the girls returned back to their hotel room beyond embarrassment, crying as they changed clothes.

Just like in the plan of salvation, you’ll be placed where you are comfortable.  These sisters were hiding from the prophet in the elevator because they were embarrassed of their attire. That’s not something I would wish on anyone, but it’s a small lesson to learn as we prepare to meet the epitome of righteousness.

So why should any of us be modest besides the off chance we might be stuck in an elevator with the prophet someday?

A religious song sings: “Will He know you when He comes again because you will be like Him.  When He sees you will the Father know His child?”

Ladies, we are daughters of God, our King, making us royalty. All of us.  Elder Holland proclaims that “every woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good.” And pleads with us saying: “be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing               to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something they are not! But as one adviser to teenage girls said: ‘You can’t live your life worrying that the world is staring at you. When you let people’s opinions make you self-conscious you give away your power. … The key to feeling [confident] is to always listen to your inner self—the real you.’  And in the kingdom of God, the real you is ‘more precious than rubies.’ This world is in need of more lovely women.  Sister Nadauld has commented that: "Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have     enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."

 Lovely women are not revealing in attire.  Only in spirit.  Elder Holland knew a woman that worked with many beautiful people.  This beauty was the kind defined by the world.  But this women said that the loveliest woman she had every met was not a scantily dressed, size 0 with long flowing hair.  The loveliest woman “had a glow of health, a warm personality, a love of learning, stability of character, and integrity”.

In True to the Faith it says that “your clothing expresses who you are. It sends messages about you, and it influences the way you and others act. When you are well groomed and modestly dressed, you can invite the companionship of the Spirit and exercise a good influence on those around you.”

When we show respect to ourselves by dressing modestly, we are showing our self-confidence.  We are showing our gratitude to the Lord for the body He has given us.  We can still be fashionable, keeping the higher standard of the Church, without succumbing to the revealing pressures of the world.

Dressing with modesty can help us prepare for one day entering into the temple – which I hope is everyone’s goal if they haven’t already been.  In the temple, we will make covenants with our Father in Heaven and will receive the sacred temple garment.  We are commanded to wear our garments virtually all the time.  What is going to happen to all of the short skirts or sleeveless tops when the garments are received?  One has to go – garments or immodesty.  I really hope that it is the latter.  But what great preparation it is for us now if we choose to be modest today.  If we are modest now, we don’t have to make that decision when we go through the temple – our sacred garments will already be our priority.

There are many ways to justify immodesty.  “It’s a hot day. Shorter shorts or a short skirt will help me stay cool in my car without AC.”  Or “the dress just came this way—adding length or sleeves will make it look tacky.”

I am not excluded in trying to justify immodest at one point or another. But the obedient are blessed.  If you want blessings the solution is simple – be obedient.  Our Heavenly Father LOVES blessing us when we are following his true disciples.  Did you know that disciples are not just the apostles of Christ.  A disciple is a follower of Christ.  This makes the prophet, apostles, stake presidents, bishops, young women leaders, even our parents, disciples of Christ.  And many of these disciples have asked, even begged for the modesty of the young women of the Church.

There are reasons we are asked to be modest. 

As already mentioned, it shows our confidence, self-respect and obedience.

But one of my biggest reasons for being modest is in good supply right here in this room. 

I am modest for the men.

It is our duty to help these men who are trying to do good in thought and in action.  And it is also our duty to help the men who are a little too willing to NOT do good in thought and in action.

Men should not have to come to church events and have to divert their eyes because we are not willing to wear undershirts or buy a shirt a size larger to avoid tightness or give up that really cute skirt that used to be modest when we were a couple inches shorter.  We should be their safe haven.

How many of you sisters have brothers?  I have three.  And most people here today know at least one.  I tend to be a protective sister anyway but what I wouldn’t give to walk around with a pile of trench coats supplying every immodest woman so that my brothers don’t have to look at the ground when they walk past. 

And I’m not saying that men have absolutely no control for their thoughts.  I give them credit more than that.  But if by wearing a Down East shirt under most of what I wear, so that nothing is being revealed, makes this hard world a little easier for someone else. That is a small price I am more than willing to pay.

Sisters, these men have a divine role to protect us.  We need to do our part in protecting them.  They are visual creatures.  Do not make it any harder for them to be righteous in this fast growing - wicked world.  Do chests, stomachs, derrières, and legs draw attention from men?  You bet they do.  But I know that when the day comes for me to meet my eternal companion, I don’t want him to have approached me because he liked how much leg I was showing.

We are not only respecting ourselves through modest dress, we are respecting men -- Particularly the wonderful priesthood holders who are striving to be worthy.

 When the people in the great and spacious building mocked those that were progressing by the iron rod toward the tree of life, those mockers tried to make the righteous people feel bad about what they were wearing.  We need to remember that, when the world mocks us, it is often because the world abhors righteousness.

Make no mistake, immodesty is a sin.  It may not be a sin that rivals serious transgressions, but it can be the first or second step down the road to those more serious transgressions.  When we are deciding what to wear, we should also be considering what we wish to accomplish.  If it is to satisfy sinful desires, then we should change.  If it leads to the temple and to righteous goals, we are on the right track.

If we have been immodest in the past, that need not change our resolve to be modest now and in the future.  That is one of the great blessings of God’s plan for our happiness.  We can leave the past in the past.  Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can repent of past sins and become new.  When we repent of our sins, the Lord remembers them no more and we are clean.

Brethern, encourage the women to be modest.

Sisters, modesty isn’t hard.  Yes, it does take some effort – buying longer dress, longer shirts - and I am by no means perfect at it - but it is very doable.

I am grateful for the examples in my life that have showed me that I can be lovely, I can be fashionable, and I can be beautiful while still being completely modest.

I am grateful for the men in my life that have told me that my modesty makes me beautiful.

I’m grateful for Jesus Christ, for His Atonement – His sacrifice.  I am grateful that I can repent when I make mistakes.  I am grateful that through that repentance I can be clean, feel clean, and be pure in the sight of God.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Hilary Hogge, “Modesty” January 1, 2012