Secret Keepers: The Delicate Power of Modesty Chapter 1

Chapter Overview:

At the beginning of this chapter, Dannah Gresh talks to this girl who had recently struggled with being overweight and she lost a lot of weight. She talked about how after she had lost weight, she feels a "power" in dressing sexy and attracting guys. This "power" that she is talking about is somewhat sexuality, but its even more unique in girls and/or young ladies. If we tried to describe this power, it would be limited, because this ''power'' is multidimensional.

The "power" is allure. Its a power both men and women are attracted to, but more so men. So in this chapter, she begins to explain the power of allure. The source of this power? Where does it come from? Modesty. Modesty is described as a "delicate yet formidable" power. Its delicate because it can be innocently given away without you even knowing it, and its formidable (hard to deal with) because once you have mastered the power of modesty, no man will be given access to the full secrets until YOU desire.

They give you an example of a girl named Jen Knapp who dresses modestly at her concerts. Check her out at this website: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=35543655

Tim Allen (yes, from Tool Time) describes the first time he noticed a woman's body and he said "I realized for the first time that, dumb as it sounds, all women are naked under their clothes .. they have this power and I didn't even know it." Dannah Gresh points out how this power is intriguing and untapped. She says that she's going to give us insight to how to obtain this power and not that she is going to answer all our questions, but she is putting the knowledge on the table and the way we use the knowledge is between us and God.

She begins to put our feelings on the table by asking us "are you reluctant to read this?" She said that she was not excited to write about modesty as I was not excited to teach on this matter. Modesty is not something that you learn about everyday and when Mr. Mickens told me that this was laid on his heart, I began somewhat frustrated as Dannah Gresh had when she was asked to write about it. She mainly confessed she did not want "her wardrobe rocked."

She began asking questions like:

"If so many parents of today are troubled by belly rings and tongue rings, how do they explain that Isaac's gift to Rebekah was a nose ring and that during Bible times a pierced nose was a sign of royalty?"

"It seems to me that a lot of Christians aren't just dissing the immodest fashions, but fashion in general. So why does the Bible actually seem to encourage us to dress well? Scripture has many verses encouraging us to present ourselves beautifully."

"If modesty is such a big deal, why doesn't the Bible talk about it more? It's only directly referenced four times."

Her biggest question was:

"If immodesty is such a problem, why aren't any of the great Christian leaders of today tackling it with more good ideas and information?"

She was ready to throw the towel in and say "I'll wear what I want!" And she started to hear some feedback from teen girls with questions such as:

"Why can't I wear what everyone else is wearing?"

"Aren't you just hung up on your old sense of fashion? Things change!"

"Why are my parents so hung up on this thing? They just don't get it!"

"Isn't it really the guy's problem? To me, its just fashion!"

These are all questions that Dannah is presented with a lot and she does not promise to answer all of our difficult questions, but she said just by writing this she has changed her perception of modesty. She believes that modesty is no longer envisioned as "some crabby old lady buttoned up to her chin in lace pointing her finger at you." Her example of modesty was a statue carved in 1846 called the Greek Slave by Hiram Powers. She hopes that we discover the beauty of modesty and the power of it.

Picture of the statue: http://encarta.msn.com/media_461523401/Greek_Slave.html

Point to look at: Modesty is a delicate yet formidable power that God has given you!