What Message Is Your Daughter Sending To Others?

Let’s be honest. Fashions for young girls and women are, for the most part, over the edge. You know it and I know it. Young girls and women are led to believe that the more skin they show, the more attractive they are. What is sad is that these girls know they are dressing provocatively but do so to attract boys. In a recent Washington Post article, one girl said, "It’s easy to dress skanky," when stores sell "booty shorts," ultra low-rise jeans, high-rise thong underwear and tees with vulgar sayings. She went on to say, "I want guys to notice me. Once boys notice, they can get to know the real me." One of the latest fashion trends to attract boys is to wear clothing or accessories which are imprinted with the Playboy bunny logo. It seems wearing the Playboy bunny achieves the same effect – "skanky" – without showing a lot of skin.

As horrifying as this may be, things have not changed a whole lot in the last 4000 years. What a woman wore sent a message then just as it sends a message today. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah. Her husband died and, according to tradition, she was then to become the wife of the brother of the deceased. However, the second brother died also. A third brother was not old enough to wed, but Judah promised that as soon as he was old enough, Tamar would be his wife. Judah did not keep his promise, so Tamar "took off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face" (Genesis 38:14-15 NKJV). She wanted to be thought a harlot so she dressed as a harlot would. In Ghana, West Africa, it is easy to spot the harlots as they walk the streets. They wear short shorts and tight tops – almost exactly what our young girls and women wear everyday in the United States.

Parents, what message is your daughter sending to others though her style of dress? Just because it is fashionable does not make it proper. The apostle Paul wrote, "I desire . . . that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control", (1 Timothy 2:8-9 ESV). When your daughter leaves your home, does her clothing send a message of purity or perversity?