Young Women: Maintaining Godly Purity

It’s challenging to try to live by God’s standards of dress, modesty and actions in a world that celebrates the opposite. What can we do?

Maintaining purity in the world today is becoming a difficult task. From watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Web or simply walking down the street, we can see just how impure the world really is.

Are we as young women striving to maintain purity? Are we dressing in a way that is pleasing to God and respectful of our brothers in Christ? Are we being an example for the young girls who look up to us as role models?

Being a role model for young girls

Are we setting the right example for the young girls who look up to us?

In a church setting young girls will look to the teen girls in their congregation and “want to be like that.” I remember doing it, and I’m sure you do too. As a young girl, all I wanted was to be a teenager. I would watch the young women around me and try to be like them in whatever way I could.

What kind of role model are we? Are we wearing dresses that are not appropriate to church? Are we making inappropriate jokes to our friends? We may not think that the young kids in our congregation are watching, but they are. We have to set the example for them of what a Christian woman is like and point them in the right direction.

“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).

Basically this is saying, don’t follow in the footsteps of the teenagers around you. Just because we are young doesn’t give us the right to dress immodestly or do or say things we shouldn’t. Set an example to everyone around you by exemplifying godly character.

Respecting God and our brothers in Christ

Are we dressing in a way that is pleasing to God and respectful of the men in the Church?

Are we dressing to impress the guys, or are we dressing in a way that shows them respect? You want a guy to respect you for you, and not for what you wear.

When we dress in inappropriate clothing, we can be creating a stumbling block for the men around us. Wearing short shorts and low-cut shirts will only attract the wrong kind of guy, and send the wrong message to a Christian man.

How are we supposed to become friends with a guy when his mind is everywhere but on what we are saying? We can dress attractively while still staying modest and respecting everyone around us. Yes, it can sometimes be very challenging to find appropriate clothing at the mall. Still, a pure woman chooses to dress and act in a way that makes her an object of respect rather than an object of lust.

Maintaining purity in an impure world

What can we, as godly women, do to maintain pure thoughts and actions?

“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8, New Living Translation).

We have to strive every day to block out the things of the world and replace them with pure thoughts. We must not follow what the world says is right and attractive, but what God says is. We must not follow those around us in what they say or do; we must follow the examples of godly women in the Bible.

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).

Is what we think and do honorable to God? We have to know and understand how to keep our bodies sanctified and set apart.

The teens in our congregation watched a video of a presentation, called “Sex Has a Price Tag,” given by Pam Stenzel several years ago. One thing she said really stuck with me. She said basically, “The next time someone teases you because you are saving yourself for your future mate, I want you to look at them and say, ‘Any day, tonight, I could choose to be like you … but you will never again be like me.’”

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Check the “Relationships” section of the LifeHopeandTruth.com website for related information.

Karissa Carter, 16, attends the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, in Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California.