I am sad to admit, one of my faults quickly got out of hand

  As much as I do not want to admit this, I have a huge character flaw. I tend to be judgemental. Which in my Christian life leads me to be legalistic:

(1. strict adherence, or the principle of strict adherence, to law or prescription, especially to the letter rather than the spirit.

2. Theology -

a. the doctrine that salvation is gained through good works.

b.the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws.)

if I am not careful. I think this may be due to my never feeling good enough, which I still struggle with at times. I know that this is not the way the Lord wants us to be. I am only human and I make mistakes to, despite my not liking to admit it. Here goes...

 When I was pregnant the only thing that was comfortable on my growing belly was a skirt (remember I went through the skirt thing last year). And my second eldest daughter had chosen all on her own to stop wearing pants and wear skirts.

  I loved the way she looked in them, and I loved the way all of the other "modest skirt wearing" girls looked. They looked sweet, innocent and pure, set apart. And after all aren't we supposed to be set apart as Christians? At least that's what I told myself. I thought people would look at our family and see a God fearing good girl kind of family. As you can already tell it was not taking me long to turn this into a "religious" thing. I knew other families that felt this way, shouldn't I?

  I had not previously felt that God had commanded us to wear skirts. I thought that maybe it was that we were growing in our walk, and this was a way we could be more holy, and to let the world know we were. Eight months later, I didn't really feel any more holy. I felt plain, bored with my appearance. I felt like this and the whole long hair no make up stuff was more separating me from God because I felt tempted, and it only set more rules and regulations to follow. I felt like my pure love for the Lord and my relationship with Him was actually not growing at all.

 After much reading on the topic, I learned several things. First, the people of biblical times all wore tunics and robes (ok so I already knew this one) matter fact many Middle Eastern people still do to this day. Pants were not even really worn until the 1600's. Plus there was a tribe that, before war women would dress in the warriors garments and the men in the women's and preform some sort of ceremony. Not to mention transvestism is not a new thing. I know that skirts tend to be a girl/woman thing in modern society from restroom signs to stick figures, but that's more modern. Plus heels were originally invented for men, yet it is not a woman's shoe. Purse like bags were originally invented for men as well, yet you don't see men carrying a bag with them everywhere they go. So why are these things religiously accepted, yet pants are frowned upon by so many.

  Don't get me wrong, I love skirts, I love seeing my girls in skirts. I do think that it makes a woman look feminine. I do not think that people are wrong for wearing only skirts, if this is a conviction, then they should. I also still feel very strong about modesty. I do feel though that a girl can still look like a girl and be modest in a pair pants. I do think it would be weird for a man to wear a ball gown and a woman to wear a tux, but...

 I spent a lot of money converting our wardrobe, however I do want to stress I do love skirts and maxi dresses still. I will not be running out buying a bunch of pants and church is always a dress or skirt day I think, but I just had forgotten that God loved me in my pants and I grew closer to him in pants and with short hair (I do love long hair though) and when I wore makeup. I think that, not for all people but for myself, that I can be misled into feeling that I must be holy by my works and this simply is not so, it is by Grace alone that I am made worthy.

 Now I want to share one of my favorite photo's that I had been to embarrassed to share because two of my daughters had shorts on.