Why I 'Dress' for Church (on Sundays)

Let me start by saying that my church does some pretty wicked-creative things in their services, really helping to get the point across. Today, I took the red pill.

I've been thinking about this post for a while now, because I 'dress' for church every Sunday. I put the word dress in marks, because obviously my church is not clothing-optional, but I dress for church in the sense that I wear more formal outfits on Sunday mornings. Our church, and our culture in general have become so casual lately. I have been asked many times why I am so dressed up for church. I have several reasons. Some are holy, most are human. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. It's how I grew up. I typically tell people that having a Southern-Mississippi-raised mother meant you wore Sunday best to church every Sunday morning, and I'm just used to it. For the most part that's true, but the reality is that my parents were always painfully concerned about how we presented ourselves to those outside our family, and therefore, you dressed up and looked nice on Sunday mornings, and though the reasons are different, the action has stayed with me.

2. Yes, God doesn't care what we wear to worship, which is why I know He doesn't mind my pajamas when I'm talking to Him in the morning and right before bed. But I don't want to enter into a corporate setting like Sunday morning worship having just 'thrown on' some clothes. On Sunday mornings, I'm treating Him ever-so-slightly different than I do when we're just hanging out and talking in my room. It's a formal meeting where others are present, and I want to take the time to prepare myself for the meeting. I make myself look nice for my Maker.

3. There are so precious few reasons to be feminine nowadays, that I want to wear a dress or a skirt and look like a girl and be a girl. I'm not cutesy cutesy and I'm not typically girlie girlie, but I am a girl. It's not a beauty thing. The guys in my life have seen me when I'm in the trenches, sweaty and putting together beds in a nursing home in Mexico, or playing a game with teenagers at camp, and I know that that's when the inner beauty comes out, but it is nice every once in a while to remind others and myself that I am feminine.

4. I want to set an example to the younger girls that I can dress fashionably, like a girl, and still dress modestly. Modesty is a HUGE issue with me. I will not wear a dress or skirt that comes above my knees, and almost everyone who knows me (including my students), knows that's my policy. I could hop onto a pretty big soapbox about this one, but I won't. It's just one of the reasons I wear a dress to church.