I dunno la, my parents keep nagging at me to wear better clothes to go to church. "Sunday Best" so to speak. My mom was like persistantly tried to dissuade me:
Mom: If you were to meet the Sultan, would you go to the palace dressing like that?
Me: No, but thats because that king care for the outward appearance. But my King cares
for whats on the inside.
Obviously knowing she lost, she kept on trying other methods. This time trying a different tact.
Mom: You know in Matthew 22, Jesus told a parable about the wedding feast and the king
who held the wedding feast cast this person out into outer darkness, where there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth for not wearing wedding garments. So what do you
think about that?
Me: Obviously, if you truly understand the parable, Jesus was implying on inward
righteousness as wedding garment not physical clothes. Think about this, the wedding
feast is The Kingdom of God, and the people are invited are anyone. So do you really
think is it justified for someone to be kick out of The Kingdom of God if all he did was
not wearing his "Sunday Best" ?
So yeah there you go, well then of course as parents normally do when they are being outsmarted by their child, they go and blame me for all the other wrong things like not studying for exams. Hehe. Thank God for today's sermon. Failure is the backdoor of success.
Yeah, I know, I know. Sooner or later I would get greater responsibility and hence I need to set the example by wearing my "Sunday Best". Heh! But I really think that what is in your heart that counts. What do you feel for God. Is it genuine? Is it humble? Is it not to please others by wearing expensive clothes, branded shoes, posh handbags?
So how then do we actually see in a person that he is a true follower of Christ? By his conduct. His attitude. His good works. Mengamalkan nilai amanah. So to speak. That's what really counts.
Like the Pharisees, teachers of the Law... What are they? Hypocrites. Look how they plot and scheme to kill Jesus just to save their face.
Oh, and on the way back from church today, my mom tried to continue persecuting interrogating me and started talking about being a person with responsibilities and its benefits. Telling me about the things you must do in order not to stumble younger believers and stuff like that. I told her that I have no responsibilties currently, I'm not a commitee member of YF, I'm not the regular role model, I'm no mentor, so why should I concern myself with my attire and other stuff. Well, I know a time will come when I have to do these things but the fact is, the time has not come. So I say enjoy the moment when you're still free and unburdened by the ever-so-oppressing thing called responsibility.
Hehe, don't get me wrong. I don't hate my mom for telling me all these stuff. In fact, I enjoy them cause it is an opportunity for me to prove to them that I can think for myself. May sound a bit selfish but hey, that's what I feel. See, arguments are good. After arguing, it sort of gives you a firm grasp of the obvious.
So yeah, argue to the max! It helps increase your brain activity but unfortunately can either break or stregthen relationship. It's a double edge sword so to speak.
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3 comments:
This is gonna be a long post so be prepared :
I was interested in this issue so I've actually went online, got some points and I'll start talking in Benjamyn Phua Manglish =).
I think about this issue, it's all about attitude la. Attitude comes from the heart so we can't force someone to have a specific attitude la.
Ok, picture this, when you go to a wedding dinner or a funeral, what do you wear? Shorts? Manchester United Jersey? Or do you wear at least a nice shirt and tie? When you go to a funeral, normally, everyone wears black, why? Well, an obvious basic reason would be the fear of people 'looking down' on you for not 'conforming' to the 'standard' way, another word, peer pressure. When go church, how? People like me would just put on a decent shirt and jeans. In church, there isn't exactly a 'standard' way of dressing but this shouldn't be 'abused'.
Some people talk about a sense of respect towards God with our clothings, but if it's REALLY about respect, shouldn't everyone wear at least a shirt and a tie etc? The elders and deacons do but not all even wear a tie I think. We respect other people, but what about God, who is ABOVE ALL MEN?
As much as we can deny this, we have to admit, the world has an effect on the church, a huge effect, and in this case, dressing. People, especially young people( like me xD) looking at how others dressed, noticeably celebrities dress, to get a raft idea on what is 'nice'. But a point you must remember, as the world changes, so do dressing. Today, girls who wears mini skirts which "REVEALS" every time they sit down or bend down to grab something on the floor is sort of acceptable, but it definitely wasn't in the past. Am I not right?
Now, the problems, I don't wanna put down what your mother said to you, and I hope you won't take my words and use it against her, but if really you were to change your dressing style to church now, you're more like conforming to your mothers' standards instead of changing for God. Some people may be more worried about dressing up instead of worshiping God, like spending more time in the toilet putting make up than singing worship songs.
But you must understand, you shouldn't wear clothes which are offensive and distracts people from worshiping God. For example, like the above, the example of the girl wearing a mini skirt, which may distract a warm-blooded male like me =). So there's a balance you need to strike, on one hand you mustn't care on how people react on your clothes( like how your mother reacted), but on the other hand, you must care about your dressing as different people are different, having different views and mentalities and may react differently.
So, what I would say is, dress what you're comfortable in, but also, as we are told to keep the Sabbath Holy, you could wear how you casually wear on normal days, but dress 'extra special' for God =), not because I said so, but because of God.
Sorry for some grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, but I'm sure you're smart enough to understand benjamyn phua Manglish xD.
hehe... I knew that already... Like Jesus giving an example of paying temple taxes. Peter ask him should we pay? Jesus replied by saying does a Son of the King pay taxes? But to avoid insulting people, Jesus told Peter to catch fish and the fish he caught, inside there would be coins to pay the temple taxes.
Haha... I hardly think anyone would be distracted by me. So as long I'm not offending anyone so its ok lor.
I'm currently trying to built greater respect for God in my heart now than simple thing than wearing nice outer garments. So don't rush la, I'll be mature one day and wear proper attire one day. Hehe step by step.
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