Our View on Dressing.
Many people have asked, why does MotherTreasure dress the way she dresses. People haven’t asked me why I cut my hair the way I do but I have been asked if having a different haircut is wrong.
We believe in what is called the law of RIPPLE DOWN EFFECT and this is why we will continue to dress the way we dress and pass it down to followers who choose to without in any way discriminating against those who do not.
Firstly, let me say that YOUR HAIRCUT WILL NOT TAKE YOU TO HELL. Likewise will your choice of DRESSING take you to hell as far as you didn’t intend to be lustful or seductive because God knows the intent of the heart? Where the problem lies is that your choice of dressing and haircut can lead you into what can lead you to hell. This is where the law of ripple down effect comes in. I will explain shortly.
Your haircut and dressing have a lot to do with your ASSOCIATION and your association contributes to your lifestyle. Psychologists agree with this. They even believe that the kind of car you use is related to your character & lifestyle. And so there are characters, lifestyles and influences that are peculiar to a style of dressing.
If a boy with a certain haircut enters a campus as a fresher and needs description to a certain point in the school, he is likely to ask another boy with a similar haircut. If there are four boys in a hostel, the ones with a similar haircut are likely to get along quickly. In a space of time, boys and girls who were freshers would quickly make friends with those who dress just the way they do. Note: there are exceptions.
To these dressings come vices. How do I mean? Certain characters come with the way you dress. If you see “five SU dressed” gather, you can comfortably say that there will be a vice of gossip among them (for example). And where “non-SU dressed gathers”, you can tell the kind of vices among them.
I was travelling in the North at a time. Soldiers did stop and search. I didn’t dress like a Pastor but I was the only male they did not search. I have had such encounters a couple of times. There was a time Police searched only one boy and drugs were found on him. How they singled him out, I don’t know but it tells a lot about how he appeared. The appearance will always show the manner.
If dressing has a lot to do with association and association has to do with lifestyle and lifestyle has a lot to do with godliness & ungodliness then, we ministers have a role to play. That is what the ripple down effect means.
In my few years of pilgrimage, I have seen a lot of believers descend morally via this route. We thought the only thing that changed about them was the hair and look but it wasn’t long before we discovered that their new association plunged their lifestyle and morals as well. I know a boy who never disobeyed his parents until he changed his haircut. I have also seen newly born again ascend by first changing the way they dress. They were able to cut out their old friends and lifestyle more easily after changing their dress style.
However, this thing is not automatic. That a brother or sister chooses to appear in a way doesn’t mean he would automatically get along with the influence that follows but they are surely more at risk. And as ministers, we believe we are examples, aren’t we? We have the babies to secure, we have the carnal believers to help and those that think they stand also need to take heed. We are examples unto them all. If we raise the standard, they can come higher, if we lower it, they will go lower. The ripple down effect of our choice goes beyond our disciples or followers in Christ but even down to our biological children.
I don’t think I want to say more than this. I preached a more elaborate message on this on our Telegram Channel titled: Christian Dressense.
1Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, “IN DRESSING”.
Titus 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
