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"Every woman carries within herself a secret, something mysterious and sacred: the potential of new life. Adam called Eve 'the mother of all the living' because life begins in the mystery of the female body. God 'touches' the female body to create a child's soul. This soul is infused within the woman's body, and there is a closeness between the mother and her Creator that has no duplicate in fatherhood. Her body, touched by God Himself, becomes sacred ground.

The way that a woman dresses, the way she sits, walks or laughs, should always be stamped by a note of holy reserve. A woman, conscious of her unmerited privilege, will necessarily adopt a body posture that reflects this calling."

Alice von Hildebrand, The Privilege of Being a Woman

This sums it up more beautifully than I could express. The way I dress and the way I act should reflect who I am - a daughter of God.

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Beautiful!!

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Modesty has always been a way for me to show my respect towards other people around me, almost like etiquettes. You can be very modest and still feminine without oozing sexual appeal that would attract the wrong attention from people you don't want to. And quite frankly, most times embarrassing memories are from when I was behaving promiscuously and I think, what in the world was I thinking?! Other women do notice it when you dress well and for the women in my church, they always tell me I inspire them because I always seem put together and have my life together. It's also very lovely to see women dressed well, looking nice and presentable. I'm all for supporting feminism in it's true empowering form, not what it's turned into today. I would never have thought a pregnant woman at her own baby shower would ever have a chance to be fetishized, but here we are. I'm sorry you went through that! You are so lovely.

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It's funny, I never would have thought to describe how I dress as modest. I would have said "I don't like to show cleavage" or "I don't like my skirts or dresses more than an inch above my knees". I hated the kind of attention it would bring to myself, made me feel like an object. It's not because I'm ashamed of my body, because I love my body. I just don't want it to be on display for people who aren't worthy. I realize now that I've been practicing modesty for quite some time now, I just have a name for it now, and a community who likes to dress the same way.

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I feel the same! I didn't think to consider the way I generally dress as modest until I discovered Abby's YouTube channel a few years ago. And I only know of her channel because of the video she made on why women should dress modestly.

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I think everyone has written some beautiful thoughts on modesty in this post!!

I have always been more modest with my clothes, but actually understanding why I dress modestly didn’t click until I heard someone explain that women shouldn’t dress modestly in order to control someone else’s thoughts, but rather to bring glory to God and respect their Creator. This gave me a purpose for my modest clothing decisions.

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As a more progressive leaning viewer who is currently being raised in a somewhat conservative muslim household, modesty is always a valued aspect among my family. I don't necessarily like to view modesty as a way to "cover up my beauty" or to "deter men away" simply because it just makes me uncomfortable to think about it like that, but more so I like to view modesty as a way to value myself and serve as a symbol towards my love for God and the gift of beauty that he has given to me. Although I'm more on the left, I still like to incorporate conservative and religious values to my life that allow me to not only grow closer to my family but to God and I feel like modesty is an amazing way to do so. Explaining modesty this way to my nonreligious friends has allowed them to come to a full understanding of the values I have and they even began to find the way I dress very unique and valuable

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That's a beautiful way to look at it. :)

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thank you abby :) even though we strongly differ on our beliefs i'm happy that i can still get some inspiration from your modest clothing ideas!

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Im not religious so I dress however I want. I don't dress modestly at all...in fact, I like to wear as little clothing as possible. Short shorts, shirts with bras that hold my cleavage up bursting out the top, I live in Australia where it is HOT most of the time even in winter so even when its "cold" I dont wear all that much.

I dont really enjoy wearing clothing to be honest. Since I have decided to wait until marriage to have sex, I have thought it best to dress more modestly when going on dates because of the points you have been saying Abby. I want to give off a certain idea about me..."Im serious about dating" persona I guess but I also want to slowly reveal more of me as time goes on, of who I am...not my body haha

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this is so cringe.

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Our community is about having a space to talk openly and respectfully about our ideas. Please be kind and respectful if you wish to participate.

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I apologize! I wont do that again

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