Church Clothes

As I was sitting in church this morning, nylon-less and wearing my "Faken-stocks" I was looking around at the way many of the other ladies and young women were wearing. Sadly, way too many were dressed even more casually than I. The teen-ager next to me was wearing flip flops, a skirt, and a ratty jean-jacket.

It saddens me that we often pat ourselves on the back because "we" wear dresses/skirts to church, and most of the "other churches" wear pants. But arent' we a bit self-righteous when we do this? Flip-flops and ratty jean jackets are not any better in my book than slacks.

I was raised that we should always wear our best clothes to church, not just throw any-ol' thing on. Income is not an issue, either. If the only shoes I had were flip-flops or Faken-stocks, I would be within these guidelines in wearing what I have. But such is not the case. I have "dress" shoes which I chose to not wear, because they would have required the nylons to go with them, and I was frankly just plain too lazy.

The one thing my two grandmothers had in common was they way they dressed for church. My maternal grandmother wore her best blue-polka-dot dress, nylons, black tie-up helled shoes, black hat, (white in the summer), black gloves (white in the summer), and in the winter, her best coat. My paternal grandmother wore her best dress, hat, mink stole, (even in the summer, sometimes), gloves, nylons and nice shoes. They could have stood next to each other in church, and neither be ashamed of their clothes.

Had I been attending church today with either of these ladies today, they would have died of embarassment. I had not put my best foot forward for the Lord today. Neither, unfortunately, did about 2/3 of the female population of our congregation.