Testimonies

Testimonies, Tips and Tidbits Classroom Challenges Too Soon We Grow Up

by Robin Ulbredtch
04/15/17
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Too Soon We Grow Up

One year I had an energetic twelve-year-old girl helping me in Children’s Church. The preteen really loved helping me with the children, and I was grateful for her help. I also had another adult and a couple of teenage boys helping. One day, a challenge arose with the preteen girl’s choice of clothing.

This young lady’s mother was an attractive woman, in her 30s, who loved to dress up for church and other occasions. Apparently this mother was teaching her daughter how to dress up also. The challenge came about when the preteen girl wore a super-tight black skirt outfit with a slit that exposed her upper leg when she moved. Also, the outfit, both shirt and skirt, fit so tightly that it revealed the curvature of her quickly-maturing body as she moved from table to table helping the children.

This young girl, who was only twelve, had the figure of an attractive young-adult woman. Whenever she moved, I noticed the eyes of the older teenage boys following her around the room. She unintentionally distracted them from their duties, and I was concerned that her clothing might get her in trouble with older teens or adult men before she even realized what was going on. Consequently, I knew something had to be said.

Knowing the young lady’s family and I had some previous disagreements on issues, I asked my husband what he thought I should do. Before I knew it, he had called the young lady’s grandmother and tried to talk with her. It didn’t go over well, and the situation became even more sensitive.

Eventually I caught up with young lady’s mother, who was a friend of mine, and told her my concerns about her daughter wearing that tight black knit outfit. At first the mother was a little upset with me. Then I emphasized to this mother that she needed to take a serious look at her daughter, who had blossomed out into a young woman. The mother finally did look objectively at her daughter, and admitted I was right. Since that day, the young woman has dressed appropriately and has turned out to be a beautiful young woman. I hope someday we have the opportunity to work together again.

In 1 Timothy 2:9-10, the apostle Paul instructs women believers about their clothing saying, “… that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.”

Peter also instructs Godly wives saying, “...whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” (1 Peter 3:2-4 KJV)