Hooters and Honoring God

“Hooters?!” I said incredulously as we drove past what used to be an empty commercial lot.

“Yep,” my husband nodded and he made the first left turn after Hooters to head to our lot. The lot we were building our new house on.

I could hear the questions before they came. The questions from little mouths. “Can we go to the new owl restaurant mommy? Why not mommy?”

How do you do it?
How do you teach modesty to children who see the world in black and white when grace is in the picture?

How do you teach your daughters that you feel God’s desire to dress modestly means you don’t wear a two-pieces swimming suit, but others who love and honor God may not have that same view?

How do you make sure your kids don’t tell others that Santa isn’t real because we don’t pretend, but others like to pretend?

My answer is it is all about honor.

1. We are to honor God (1Cor 6:20).

All we do, all we say, what we wear, where we go, all of it should be in an effort to honor God. Brushing your teeth? Do it because you want to honor God by taking care of the body He gave you. Teaching your kids about dressing modestly? Do it because we want to honor God with our bodies, not because it makes us righteous. No it only helps us honor a God who died that we may live.

The question we must ask ourselves is am I honoring God in what I say, do, think, wear, my attitude? Then we must step back and know that there is freedom in Christ. Your definition of modesty may be different from mine, but if we are looking to honor God, it doesn’t matter as long as we encourage each other to honor God.

2. Romans 12:10 tells us to “…Honor one another above yourselves.”

Honoring others means extending God’s grace and love in times when we disagree. I have some sweet Godly friends that go to Hooters. I don’t feel I have that freedom in Christ, but they do. I may even tell them in a loving way why I don’t go to Hooters, but love and honor rule that conversation. All covered in the freedom Christ gives. It is about honoring and loving those around us.

Honoring others also means treating them the same way you want to be treated. None of us want to be judged or misunderstood. None of us want to be told because you wear something or go somewhere you are in sin and wrong. Romans 14 tells us about our freedom in Christ, not freedom to sin, but freedom to live out honoring lives to God whether we go to Hooters or not.

Does adding grace into the black and white world of my children work?

Amazingly, yes. I think kids get grace so much easier than we adults do. We try to add things to it.

We add living a “good” life to grace so we can be called righteous, when we know we are righteous by faith in God. (Gal 3:1-6)

Kids just accept it for what it is. We are not righteous by what we do, we are righteous because of whose we are, because we have faith in Him, who died that we may live.

What do you think? How do you teach God’s grace and freedom in Christ in the midst of God’s precepts?