A Cause I Believe In ... Part I

What would it look like if everyone put 100% of their effort into a cause they believed in?

It's a question to ponder. What could you accomplish if you put all frivolous things aside and focused your energy on something that was truly important to you? This is assuming you know what's important to you. Many people say that something is important to them, but then do something that completely contradicts that fact. They'll say they believe in something, but if you watch them, their actions tell you otherwise. Blue Like Jazz author Donald Miller wrote, "What I believe is not what I say I believe; What I believe is what I do." What do you do to support your so-called beliefs? A lot? A little? Anything at all?

I am in no way excluding myself as a reciever of this message. In fact, this whole to-do was written with myself in mind. What am I doing to support my beliefs? My resolution for this new year was at first to be a better follower of Jesus. That's very vague, so I revised it to say, "I want to be a better follower of Jesus, and I will do this by standing up for the things I believe in and sharing them with others." This is also somewhat vague, but because I'm not doing a whole lot to voice my opinion, anything at all would be an improvement.^^ Besides, I'd like some room to be creative.

So, my first cause: Modesty.

This hasn't always been an issue with me. I would tell you that it bothered me when the cheerleaders wore short skirts and jumped around, and that may have led you to think I cared about modesty, but if you went through my closet you'd soon come to the conclusion that I was a hypocrite. And I was. I wore jeans so tight you could see the date on the dime in my back pocket. And they were always the low-rise or super low-rise or even dangerously-low rise jeans. The neckline of my shirts dipped dangerously low themselves, and when I wore shorts... Were those even considered outerwear?!

Looking back (to just this past year even), I can't imagine what my rationale was for this behavior. I wore clothes (can you even call them that?!) that showed off my body in order to attract attention. That's all I wanted was attention. I didn't even consider who I was getting the attention from, and I don't think any young girl stops to to think about whose eyes they're drawing to themselves. You're going to catch whatever you put bait out for, and dressing with sex in mind is going to get you just that - sex. And nothing more. It's not going to get you love. It's not going to get you friendship. It's going to get you into a heck of a lot of trouble, that's for sure, but really, what else?

There are many things that are important to me, but modesty is something new that God has brought into my life, and I want to share it with other young ladies who will come after me. I understand what they're doing, and even understand why to a point, but I also know the other side, the God-pleasing, self-respecting side, and it is so much better. It's the way God intended us to be. Not just ladies, but everyone. I simply focus on the ladies because I have more experience in that area seeings how I am one.^^

I'm going to put 100% of my effort into serving God this next year, and my focus for January will be Modesty. I want to share my mini, month-long journey with you here, so stay with me. I'm not quite done. I'll have more posts on the topic in January. Hopefully by then I'll have pictures up here and it won't be so drab. Whoot!