Averting Eyes

A friend recently pointed me to this mini-teaching about ladies and modesty, and how men struggle with lustful urges:



This is perspective I don't often hear: modest dress is not only honorable to GOD, and good for your self-respect, but it's also better for men who are trying to live for GOD but still struggle with sinful desires.

I gather I'm in the minority among my male peers because I find a lady in an 18th Century dress a beautiful sight to behold. Bikinis, nah. Short shorts, nope. But still, I'm having to avert my eyes a lot.

On Friday evening I was grabbing a burger at the brand-new In-N-Out near the Tucson Mall. Some teenagers with a church group were sitting behind me in T-shirts and jeans, nothing provocative... until one of the ladies suddenly bent over to grab something off the floor and I realized -- to my shock and horror -- that her pants and her shirt weren't coming together like they should. I re-directed my eyes out the window to the darkness of Oracle Road.

I'm not immune from lustful thoughts, either; I'm still a guy and I don't have the gift of celibacy, although sometimes I wish I did. But I can tell you this: I pray for GOD to help me be a light in this world, and in answering those prayers, HE is helping make temptation less of a threat (Romans 12:2, 1 Cor. 10:13). You draw nearer to GOD, and HE will draw nearer to you (James 4:7-8).

I am so thankful for young ladies who cherish their modesty, not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also because they realize they have a choice in this world, and they don't have to choose what the world is telling them to do. They can be what GOD made them to be, without shame, without guilt, without feeling like they're not a real woman because they wear something that falls below the knee.

Thank you GOD, for helping me to be a gentleman beyond that person in breeches and a three-cornered hat.