First, I'd like to establish why modesty is important in the first place. If you don't agree that modesty is important, this whole post will be nonsense to you. Modesty is important for many reasons, but I'll narrow it down to three.
1. Dress modestly out of respect for God. He made you, and He loves you. He values you enough to pay the highest price possible for you. He deserves nothing but your utmost respect and honor. You honor Him with your body by choosing not to expose what would disregard the value He places on you or cause another one of His precious and invaluable children to stumble.
2. Dress modestly out of respect for yourself. As previously stated, the Creator of the Universe says that you are immensely and immeasurably valuable. To give to all freely what should be held sacred (the right to look at your body) is to dishonor the high price paid for the thing being given. Imagine a priceless pearl bought with a man's entire life savings. Then imagine him throwing the pearl out into his pigpen. Who wouldn't scream in frustration?? When you know the price paid for an item, you become distressed when the item is treated as trash. (Matthew 13:45-46: You are the precious pearl! Matthew 7:6: Don't throw pearls to the pigs. See the connection?)
3. Dress modestly out of respect for other believers. Jesus not only paid a costly and high price for you, He paid that same price for every human being that lives, has lived, and will live. Every single one of us is invaluable to Him, and every one deserves the same respect. So at the same time that you need to respect God and yourself by the way that you dress, you need to respect the other believers around you. Your dress doesn't only affect you; it affects those around you. The Christian young men in your life should be straining towards purity and training themselves to look away when someone wearing less than appropriate clothing walks by. Believe me when I say that they do NOT need any more temptation than what they already face. You as a Christian have the responsibility to try and protect them by dressing in ways that do not in any way tempt them to look at you in a lustful manner. They don't appreciate it when a woman who follows Christ makes it hard for them to do the same. You also have the responsibility to protect young girls from thinking that dressing immodestly is okay. Do you remember being a young child? Do you remember how much they look up to teenagers? They do. A lot. They mimic us as often as possible. I can almost guarantee that there's a young person in your life that looks up to you, and Jesus made it pretty clear that leading a child into sin is not a desirable situation. (Matthew 18:6)
On swimsuits, one thing can be said for sure: bikinis are not modest, in any way, ever. Period. I firmly believe that women do not have any right to say what is modest and what is not. Why? Because we can't see through a guy's eyes. We could say all we want about what is modest and what is not, but at the end of the day, if it causes a guy to stumble, it's not modest. We can't know what's modest because we don't know what makes it difficult for them to avert their eyes. I strongly recommend that every girl have a Christian guy friend who will be completely honest and straightforward to tell her if her clothes are modest or not. So, it is not on my own authority that I say this. Here's what my 18 year old brother has to say about it:
"It's not fair. Girls, I really don't believe you understand what it's like to have the hormones that a guy has, and to then have sex thrown at you from every angle of life. As men, we are constantly having to turn our eyes. ALL the time. I understand that it's our duty as men to be strong and courageous, but imagine the bullet coming not only from the enemy, but also the teammate. Imagine the sheer shock. Things like "I thought you cared about me" and "Did my life not matter to you?" And "Whose side are you on?" would go through your head. Let's change that up. "Does my innocence not matter to you?" "I thought you cared about my purity?" "Don't you know who's side you're on?" Ladies, it is extremely hard. And it's one thing to have to turn your head from someone who isn't a Christian, but having to turn your head from a Christian is like dodging a bullet fired from a teammate. This stuff matters. What if I told you that ONE wrong thought in a guy's mind can be enough to get him to look at porn. One thought can do it. It's downhill from there. Exposing yourself by wearing a bikini can not only cause a man to think about things he shouldn't, but it can also make him think things he shouldn't about you. Now don't freak out. Yes, there are times where a man may think awful thoughts about you. But, wearing a bikini has become so normal that most guys don't think twice about it. Seeing that skin doesn't mean anything to them anymore. Just another naked girl. Most guys wouldn't say that they devalue girls when they see them in a bikini. But, what you don't understand, is that boy is looking upon a body that probably isn't meant for him, he's not looking away, he doesn't care about the fact that your and his innocence is gone, and all he sees is just another body. And that is a VERY wrong thought about you! Because your body was made for ONE person and ONE person alone. And you are worth FAR more than the way your body is treated when you dress immodestly. Bikinis are not in any way, shape, or form modest. One last thing: Like I said, boys doesn't think twice about a girl wearing a bikini. It's so normal. But I will tell you this: From a Christian guy's perspective, when a girl respects herself enough to dress modestly at the beach, he almost never forgets that about you."
So there you have it. Do you really need another reason not to wear a bikini? Here's a video about the history of the bikini and what looking at a woman in a bikini actually does to a guy's mind psychologically:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJVHRJbgLz8
Jessica Rey, who spoke in the video, has her own swimsuit line of cute and modest swimwear. It can be found at http://www.reyswimwear.com/, and I strongly recommend you look at their adorable suits! Here's a few:
Fashion doesn't have to be compromised to be modest!
Thank you so much for reading this ridiculously long post! You can find my brother's blog at http://wretchedyetdivine.blogspot.com/
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