We were at a wedding a couple of weeks ago and a couple of our friends were there.
They both looked lovely and I told them that. One was wearing a shorter type of dress with stockings (not immodestly short) and the other a longer style, more trendy dress with fancy leggings.
Now I hate stockings, and I love wearing leggings under my skirts but my husband wouldn’t be happy with me wearing them out to a wedding so I had sandles on – it was a warm day.
Whilst chatting to the two ladies we got into a conversation regarding clothing. The one wearing leggings said she hoped they looked okay and the one wearing stockings said her husband didn’t like leggings and she wasn’t to wear them, and so she didn’t!
Now this lady has only been married about 10 years and was older when this happened, she would now be over 50. She has worked all her life as a teacher so I had presumed she was an independent type of woman.
Well I must admit I was impressed. Here was what I considered a modern independent women submitting willingly to her husband. Wow I had found a soul mate regarding this matter. She wanted to dress to impress her husband, and wouldn’t wear something he didn’t like.
We went onto the reception and then went home and it was on my mind most of the night and the following days. I really felt I needed to say something to her on the matter, it stuck in my memory so strongly.
The next Sunday when I saw her at church I commented to her on how impressed I was that she did this. She was quite matter of fact about it and stated that you needed to listen to your husband on these matters.
Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
This really encouraged me to make sure that I was dressing to impress my husband and not myself or anyone else.
I know that my husband likes me to wear floral fabrics. Now this isn’t always possible but if I can, that is what I do. He doesn’t like me to wear denim out so I have stopped that. My husband likes me to wear skirts and not pants and I have become so used to that, I don’t think I could go back.
I love my husband and want to make sure that I am submitting to him as he submits to Christ.
I just want to encourage you to make sure that your husband is happy with how you dress, it isn’t the issue whether it’s skirts or pants or florals or stripes. The issue is he is always the one you need to impress, not anyone else.
PS: I am not perfect that’s for sure and I still struggle at times with this so please don’t think I have it all sorted. I write this to encourage myself mostly.
I’m lucky that my husband has encouraged me to find my style, though I will admit, when we go shopping he has a better eye for my style that I do! LOL – Fortunately, we’ve always been on the same page!
Thanks for that comment, it’s great that you and your husband are on the same page. Thank you for sharing. Blessings
Until about 4yrs ago I wore only dresses & skirts due to being in the Amish culture, then Mennonite. Now we are neither. My husband prefers pants. I prefer skirts. I wear mostly pants because he likes them, but I’m not sure I could go back to all skirts & feel good about it. He greatly appreciates a “fancied up” wife in a dress or skirt every once in a while, though! 🙂 Thank you for encouraging women to seek their husbands leadership in this area. The most God honoring place for a wife to be is where the husband desires when it is not requiring her to sin or suffer. Bless you!
Thank you Kaylene for sharing with me on your experience and for your encouragement. Blessings
I think this idea also goes along with the biblical command that when we marry, our bodies are not our own but our husband’s instead (1 Cor. 6:19). My husband doesn’t tell me what to wear as far as clothing, but he’s always requested that I keep my hair in a curly style. He doesn’t like it when I straighten it–which is fine with me because it takes so much more work to get it straight and keep it straight in this mid-western humidity! Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Terri! And thanks for linking up at Wedded Wed too! 🙂
Thank you Beth for your comment. Blessings
Any way we can show each other mutual love and encouragement are blessings. Rev is very complimentary. I’m blessed! I am reminded though, how we dress to please them when we’re trying to get their attention in the early days of dating. In 40+ years we’ve learned that the best way to bless our marriage is to continue all of those things we did in our early days, weeks, months, and years. Thanks for linking at Counting My Blessings!
Hi Deb, thank you for your lovely comment and I agree about doing those things we used to do, what an inspiration, blessings.
Hubby has more or less left it up to me on how I dress, but has gotten on board with being separated from the world…at least for myself and stepdaughter. We wear dresses and skirts until it get extremely cold, then out come the heavy fleece. I make my own dresses and most skirts, mostly of the Mennonite styles which pleases hubby. It works. My hair stays below shoulder length at hubby’s wishes, or else it’d be nice and short and easy to work with.
It’s not about impressing anyone, at least not for me. It’s about being covered, not showing off what doesn’t need showing, and staying modest about it. And hopefully warm in the winter that’s sneaking up on us! 🙂
I agree about being separated from the world. It is very hard to find clothing to suit our daughters especially. I find that it is easier to make my daughters clothes or sometimes I can find older style pinafores and such at the local op-shop (second hand store). We don’t get it as cold but we do wear leggings all winter to keep us warm under are skirts. Thanks again for sharing. Blessings