Why Modesty??

  So many people I know wonder why I have chosen to dress so differently the past few years. Well, I can give you a brief history of why I have chosen to dress the way I do. Growing up, my parents were always careful about the way my sister and I dressed... or so they thought. When I was little, I had no conviction about making sure I was dressing to please the Lord. I had no problem wearing 2 piece swimsuits, short skirts, or strapless tops. Fast forward until I was about 16 or so. I was still in public high school and I began to realize how the other girls were dressing, and how it was leading to things I understood were not Christ-like. Every once and a while, I would wear a skirt to school (mind you, I still hated skirts at this time) and every time, people would pretty much make fun of me. So, I would revert back to wearing jeans. Fast forward until my senior year. My parents pulled me out of public school to be homeschooled. As I began to run with the homeschool crowd, I started noticing how most of the other families were dressing. I decided I would try to start wearing skirts more often. At the time, I was working at a local sports store. Part of our uniform was khaki shorts or pants. One day I showed up with a modest khaki skirt on, thinking I still looked the part. It so happened my General Manager stopped by. Sometime in the day, he pulled me aside and told me I was not to show back up with a skirt on, because it wasn't a part of my dress code. I did not feel strong enough back then to stand up and tell him I had begun to wear them because of my religious beliefs, so I was a coward and agreed I wouldn't. After that day, I began feeling guilty about backing down so easily, but not guilty enough to wear a skirt back to work. I always had a false belief that dressing modestly meant dressing like I was living in the wrong century, and that you couldn't be stylish and modest at the same time. Boy, was I wrong.
  It was soon after I left that job, that I began to really feel convicted that women just shouldn't wear pants. Ever since then, all I have worn are skirts, and that's been about 3 1/2 years now.
Deuteronomy 22:5 says "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man..." It took me a while to understand why, but God finally just shoved it onto my heart that it's really hard to dress modestly in pants. You are constantly having to pull them up or pull your shirt down to make sure you aren't exposing skin. Why not dress like a lady and not have to worry as much.
  I'm not saying all this to say women/girls who wear pants are evil, I just wanted to share my story with other girls who might be struggling the same way that I was. If it wouldn't have been for the woman in my life dressing modestly, I may have never changed my thought process.
  I also am not trying to be legalistic with modesty. Not only are we dressing modestly to guard our bodies for ourselves, but we also need to think about guarding the hearts of the men and boys around us. Women and men alike should be careful what we expose ourselves to, because we need to be guarding our heart and thoughts to save ourselves entirely for our future spouse. I hope this might reach girls/women who think dressing modestly is all about the rules, to show them it's not only a physical issue, it's also a matter of the heart.