It’s that time of year: summer vacation is ending and school is beginning.
As kids hit the stores for a final wave of back-to-school shopping, some parents are becoming more skeptical about the latest trends.
Have you noticed the newest fashions the retailers are trying to sell our daughters?
Skin-tight jeans, short skirts and low-cut tops with not enough of fabric to even cover the navel.
Parents are returning home exhausted — not from bargain hunting but from searching for decent clothes that won’t get their child suspended from school!
Clothing wars have been around for decades, but more and more parents are finding the sexy look is becoming un‘bare’able!
Some school officials, embarrassed by their students’ attire in the past, have implemented new dress codes for the upcoming school year.
But the gatekeepers of the fashion industry aren’t making it easy for them.
In fact, a feature in the Wall Street Journal outlined the latest strategies of those who market lingerie, especially to young girls.
Many companies have started campaigns to specifically target the teenage demographic with revealing outfits and racy advertisements.
Those ads may not necessarily lead to increased promiscuity among teens, but it certainly adds to the temptations that already exist.
The trend today is for society to encourage our children not only to look like adults, but to take on adult responsibilities when it comes to physical intimacy.
Most parents agree that parenting is becoming increasingly difficult in a culture where sex-appeal sells everything from cars to lipstick.
Thanks to the efforts of Hollywood, the media, and certain “family life” curriculum in schools, kids are getting the message early that looking “sexy” is a measure of their self-worth.
I believe it’s time to restore our kids’ innocence and reaffirm that sex-appeal is NOT the most significant measure of self-esteem!
Many people think that God is only concerned about their soul. But He is equally interested in what they do with their bodies.
The Apostle Paul gives this instruction in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20= “What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you received of God, and you don’t belong to yourself?
For you were bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which belong to God.”
The truth is: your self-worth is built upon the fact that God made you who you are.
You don’t have to work to impress God or dress in the latest trends and hope He’ll approve of you… just be yourself.
He loves you just the way you are.
Famous psychologist Erik Erikson once said, “The most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”
As parents, it is our responsibility to affirm and build up our children’s self-esteem.
Regardless of whether they wear name-brand clothing or hand-me-downs, we should remind our children that God made them special and they don’t have to lower their standards in order to be accepted.

Rev. Doug Johnson is the senior pastor at Raven Assembly of God in Raven, Virginia.