The Bishop came to give a message from the Stake President to the Relief Society women yesterday. He started off talking about the importance of wearing our garments appropriately. He went on to say that the Stake President has seen women walking at all times of the day in clothing that could clearly not allow them to be wearing garments. He said something to the effect of "Maybe, if you're training for a marathon or something, wearing garments could make it difficult in some way." He also said to make sure we don't lounge around in them after exercising. And that we should look for reasons to wear them rather than not wear them.
A couple weeks ago I would have heard this counsel and felt smug & superior (more or less of a sin than immodesty?), knowing I always wore my garments whenever not swimming or showering. That's what my mom always did, so that's what I felt was appropriate. Then at the beginning of the month I noticed my dad wearing shorts to run. I'd been having a hard time running in this yucky Utah heat (the average high temp over the last week is 93), or stressing & yelling at the kids to get out the door early enough that it wasn't totally unbearable. I decided if my dad felt okay with it than I did too.
So I went and bought two pairs of shorts & two tank tops. The shorts I got are pretty short, but I chose them only because they were $5.99 each instead of $10 or more for everything else. I tried on a cute exercise shirt with short sleeves, but the heat difference, even just in a fitting room at Target, was amazing. So I chose tank tops that are about as covering as tank tops can be, almost to the shoulder & neck. There were some really cute ones with much thinner straps, but I don't think the heat difference is much between the thick straps & the thin straps (nothing like the heat difference between having sleeves and not!), so I decided to go with the more covering ones to show that it really was just about comfort, not cuteness.
So I've been wearing them, now called my "running clothes," for a couple weeks. I usually get out to go running around 8:30-9:00, I'm out for about 20 minutes, then I cool down for a few minutes, then take a shower and get dressed. Well, Saturday I was planning on walking with a friend around 9:30, but we didn't get going until 11:15. And I mowed the lawn while I was waiting, so I was HOT! I didn't think I was physically able to go for a 3 mile walk (in the middle of the day, on a day with a high of 95!) in my sweat pants, without passing out or something, so I changed into my running clothes. I felt a little funny, but figured it was better to walk without garments than not walk at all.
Then the VERY NEXT DAY the Bishop comes in to talk about that! I felt like he was talking just to me! I felt like everyone who has seen me out in my running clothes was thinking "Ooooh, Rachel does that, she's a bad person." I don't know, maybe there are lots of other women taking casual strolls in skimpy clothes. It IS the middle of August in Utah, when it is about 90 degrees most days. It just felt like more than a coincidence that it was brought up so soon after I started taking off my garments to exercise.
I feel like what I'm doing is okay, but then I think "Oh no, am I just justifying myself?" I'll make an effort to make sure I walk early enough & without exercising right beforehand so I can wear my garments for walking. Even changing to thinner pants would have been better, I was wearing actual sweat pants, so maybe I need some better modest exercise clothes. But what about jogging? He pretty much said it wasn't okay for walking, but probably was for marathon training. There's quite the gray area between those! I would ultimately love to run a marathon, but at this point I'm only doing about a mile and a half. So if anything, I'm in the really, really, really early stages of training. But I personally feel okay wearing my running clothes for that purpose.
I know that the Stake President can receive Revelation for people under his jurisdiction. But is this Revelation, or just something he is worried about? And is there a difference in our need to follow it? I mean, if the Prophet were to come out and say "You should wear your garments whenever exercising." I would make that work. But is this maybe just a pet issue of the Stake Pres?
A couple years ago our Bishop at the time spent quite a while in Sacrament Meeting talking about how we need to make sure we drive really slowly in the neighborhoods, and also along the long straight road leading up to it. He gave some numbers about how driving fast down it only saves us 8 seconds or something. Anyways, we found out later that this is something he personally feels really strongly about, and years ago had put up a sign along the long straight road that says "Please Slow Down." That's kind of rude, that assumes that everyone needs to slow down - it would have been nicer to write "Please Go Slow" or something. And even though it's a great idea to follow the speed limits, it felt like he was taking advantage of his position to push is agenda. It wasn't something he was worrying about as a Bishop, it was just a pet peeve of his that he now had the opportunity to make it seem like it was coming from a higher power.
So, is it possible that this is a similar thing? Not that that makes it not important to wear our garments appropriately...geez this is hard to explain! I guess I mean, is it coming from him as a person or as the Stake President? And where along the range of strenuosity (okay, not a real word, but it fits here!) does he draw the line?
And now I feel like everyone is judging me for wearing my running clothes. Especially because I only ever walk in Kiowa Valley (our neighborhood), as my warm up and cool down. So are people peeking out their windows, seeing me walking by in my immodest clothes? If they see me on my return, it's clear that I've worked out pretty hard, but do they guess that I've been running or just assume I'm a wimp that gets that red & sweaty from a walk? And do people drive by while I'm cooling down, usually watering the flowers, and assume I just dress like that to do yard work? I guess ultimately it doesn't matter if other people judge me, but I also want to avoid the appearance of evil!
Well, if you're still reading, you have a lot of patience. I guess in a couple more weeks it'll cool down and I won't have to worry about this again until next summer. I really do want to do what's right, I just think it's a little ambiguous here. I guess Heavenly Father knows my heart, and that's the most important thing.
Now time to get ready to eat lunch, then take my grown up baby to his first day of Kindergarten!
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