modesty in children

The clothing manufacturers make even toddler sizes too tight or something because Hannah's not quite tall enough for size 4 pants, but size 3 is too tight around her legs and toddler belly. Her shirts fit better around her as a 4 as well, we don't want to start anything now that we'll have to correct later when she's wanting to pick out her own clothes. Speaking of modesty. Laura shopped at a consignment sale and was shocked to find the stylish choices available for someone Hannah's size. With ribbon around the bust line resembling an adult’s blouse that Laura wouldn't feel entirely modest wearing, some of the outfits for a preschooler were quite outrageous.

However, one seemingly innocent choice became one of the lost items soon after buying it. Even though we don't own any of the Disney Princess movies, we have several princess items to play with. So when Laura found a pj set with Jasmine on it for $1 that went in the pile of good deals and came home. When Hannah picked it out to wear one night because it was purple, her favorite color, Forest was surprised it made it into our wardrobe. He asked Laura and there was a moment of confusion followed by a moment of "duh". In protecting our daughter's modesty, we cannot only think of how much of her body is covered--the pj's in question were long sleeved and big enough to not be too tight. We must also think of the images she sees on her clothes and toys. Jasmine wears hardly anything on top and it just slipped past Laura's view, because she was more focused on it being a cheap set of pj's than what was on them.

We also must begin even now to guard our son's heart and mind against immodesty in the girls he admires--if we allow Hannah to wear the shirt with the scantily clad princess, will he be drawn to scantily clad women as a man? A princess is to be desired, should he desire one who dresses this way? It was good to have this inexpensive goof, it was good to be reminded in every area we must be thinking of how we parent our children does not just affect their behavior now or in the very near future, but we are laying the foundation of their thought patterns and behaviors now. If we allow them to disrespect their siblings now with an angry tone, they will disrespect others later. If we allow laziness now with schoolwork (whether homeschooling or not) they will be lazy workers as adults. What do we want most for our children? The same we want for ourselves: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever! So in all we do, "work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord [we] will receive the inheritance as [our] reward. [We] are serving the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:23, 24).