Why does it bother me?
It bothers me because I'm prideful. Because I run in Christian circles who preach at me and to me that leggings are not pants and that I shouldn't do that because I don't want to cause the men and boys in my life to stumble. And it's true. I don't.
It's gotten to the point where I feel superior to girls who do this because obviously I'm better than them. I have dignity and pride and I know that this may cause males to stumble, so I won't do it, for the good of the earth. I'm making it about me. It's like I'm bitter about not wearing leggings as pants, so I hate everyone who does it. That's kind of an exaggeration, but that's the general feeling going on in my little brain.
But...Jesus wants me to love my enemies, right? Not that these girls are quite my enemies...because they're not. They're just girls who make fashion choices that I don't agree with morally. But, enemies or not, should I not love them? They're not going to see Jesus through me very clearly if I'm judging them harshly through my anti-legginged soul.
I'm not saying that to love these girls means to embrace their culture of inappropriate bottom-coverage, because it doesn't. But I am saying that it means that I should LOVE them and be kind to them and not make stink-eye faces at them when I pass them or make assumptions about their lives because of what they chose to wear on their behinds today, incorrectly assuming that what they chose passes as pants, or refuse to be friends with them because it's entirely possible that they could be nice people! They're just misguided.
And so, to un-misguide them and to prevent them from committing this apparent crime over and over again for the rest of their days, I could just show them what does count as pants. I mean, it's just a thought.
I am aware that Jesus never directly addressed this issue during His time here on earth. But let me just say something. There are a lot of times in the Bible we women are told not to adorn ourselves with gold or braids, etc. Nowhere does anybody say that gold is evil, because it isn't. It can be used for evil (for example: golden calf in Exodus), but gold is not inherently evil. There are a lot of really cool gold things, and there is a passage in Luke where Jesus tells the parable of the gold coins (Luke 19:11-27. Read it.) and in this passage, the master gives his servants gold coins, which is a great honor and very generous of him. The gold is not the bad thing in this parable. It's the lazy servant. Gold can be good or evil. It's what we as humans make it, which is pretty much the case with everything ever.
Including leggings. Leggings are cute. Leggings are fun. My sister has zebra-print leggings. That's cool. Also I would like to say that kids are exempt from this issue because they're just kids! Anything they wear is cute and generally not evil. Leggings are warm. They look cute underneath a skirt or dress and when it's too cold to go running in just shorts, leggings go well underneath shorts to keep your legs warm. When you're at home relaxing, there is nothing wrong with wearing leggings because they are so comfortable. Believe me. I know. Also leggings are good to work out in, sometimes even without shorts on top. But it's just when you take these leggings and wear them as a fashion statement day in and day out and don't wear a dress or a skirt or running shorts on top of them and you show every person ever your butt (even, and sometimes especially, those who don't want to see it) and then you keep doing it forever, is when it becomes less and less okay, even though it's cool. Cool things aren't always right. Example: bowing down to a chocolate bunny (see Veggietales: Rack, Shack, and Benny).
Maybe this is my soapbox because I keep coming up with things to say about it. But it's not like leggings are the only way to make the male kind stumble, either. It's like we (and by we I mean the girls against leggings as pants. We could start a group maybe. SALP - Society Against Leggings as Pants) are completely against leggings as pants and when we see it happen we are in an uproar, but other things don't bother us so much. Short-shorts? Nah. Midriff? Not such a big deal. Ankles? Well...it may have a been a hundred or more years since that was considered scandalous. But leggings as pants? Shut the front door, somebody's about to get judged real hard.
I've seen blog posts to encourage me and other Christian girls from wearing leggings as pants and to justify our life choices in deciding not to wear them, and I've heard so many people talk about how leggings are not pants. And I agree with all of them. Leggings are not pants. But let's just be a little more soft maybe.
Conclusion: Hey guys, let's be nice people. Even though leggings are not pants and silly girls think they are (every single day all winter long), that does not make them awful people. Have they committed murder? Probably not. And if they have, we should probably worry a little bit more about that than about their clothing choices. And also...we sin too every once in a while. We do bad things. Sometimes we even do them on purpose. These girls just do different bad things, which does not make the things that we do less bad, and these ladies don't always completely know how awful it is or how awful we think it is. And also, we are not the judge of whether they go to heaven or not. Just saying. I am not every girl's ultimate judge. God is. He is also my ultimate judge. Remember that.
That is all.
Thank you for your time.
Love,
Lauralicious
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