I love femininity. I love modesty. I also love my fellow sisters in Christ. I might try to encourage you to wear skirts more, but I won’t throw you over board if you or your husband decide against it. Now if you walk around in skin tight jeans and cleavage hanging out? Well, we need to talk, maybe in another blog post….

It’s not all that often that I get questioned “why do you wear skirts all the time?” but in private settings (emails) I get asked that question quite a bit so I know its definitely on some of your minds. I’m going to try to answer this question today and the reasons for my answer may surprise some of you.

I started wearing skirts/dresses when I was 9 years old. Besides a week when I was 12 where we tried going back to pants, I’ve pretty much been in a skirt or dress since then. I wear pants maybe 2-3 times a year for various activities.

Why I wear skirts all the time….

1. Because they are feminine and easily portray the fact that I am a woman.

This is honestly my strongest argument as to why I wear skirts. In today’s culture people seem to be extremely confused as to which gender they are (or at least many act and look confused). Homosexuality is rampant, as well as more disgusting forms of gender confusion. There are people near and dear to my heart that have chosen the homosexual lifestyle. This has made me even more determined to dress as a woman (for that is what God made me), to portray to my children that I am a female and I’m blessed to be one. Men and women properly functioning in their God given roles is one of the best defenses against the relational perversions we find in our present day. I am a woman and have no desire to look like a man (much less act like one). That’s my husbands job : )

2. Because they are easy to be modest in.

I’m not going to say that it is impossible to be modest in pants. My sister and I were out together recently, and saw an elderly lady walking to her car in pants and we commented that they were actually pretty modest. But that is because they were loose and not fitting her snugly at all. I honestly would rather wear a skirt that is cute and pretty than wear loose, baggy pants. Most of the pants/jeans I see on ladies fit them rather snugly, and draw a lot of attention to their backside. Every curve is outlined for everyone to see.

3. Because they are comfortable

The few times I wear pants I’m reminded of why I enjoy wearing skirts. They don’t cling to you, they are airy and cool instead of sticky and tight when it is hot out (if you don’t have a polyester slip underneath!). I find that I can do most things without pants on. Since I grew up this way it’s just natural to me.

You may notice that I don’t have the usual Deut. 22:5 verse mentioned as a reason why I wear skirts all the time. If read at face value it most certainly seems to point to the fact that women should wear dresses/skirts all the time. However I’m just not convinced that we can use that scripture as our defense. When that scripture was written, men and women alike wore robes. I think this scripture can be clearly used in regards to cross dressing, but as for the jeans vs skirt debate, I’m just not convinced. I also find it interesting that we are quick to pull this scripture out of Deuteronomy and cling to it as the reason we wear skirts, but there are countless other scriptures found in Deut. that we don’t observe.

I certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from dressing in skirts by bringing this up, and I also don’t want to appear that I’m condoning women wearing jeans. I obviously prefer women to wear skirts, but I also have friends in my life who do not wear skirts all the time and I love them deeply. I’m passionate about modesty, so much so that I started a business selling modest clothes [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.] so ladies could have more options. What I’m not passionate about is the legalism and the judgmental attitudes that sometimes accompany ladies that wear dresses only. As if the faithful daughters of Christ would wear nothing else? I’m sorry, I simply cannot agree with that. However, no child of his who has knowledge will permit themselves to don the provocative or sensual or gender confused dress of those who know not God. As in all other things, we must must honor our King even by the clothes we wear.

All this being said, if you have never tried wearing skirts everyday around the house-give it a try for a day or two! You might be surprised with how your family responds. My children love to see me in skirts and if I ever put a pair of pants on they give me really funny looks and tell me I look like papa.

I love femininity. I love modesty. I also love my fellow sisters in Christ. I might try to encourage you to wear skirts more, but I won’t throw you over board if you or your husband decide against it. Now if you walk around in skin tight jeans and cleavage hanging out? Well, we need to talk, maybe in another blog post….

Caroline Allen is a home-school wife and mom who blogs at Modest Mom where this article first appeared; It is used with her permission.