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?
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Full disclosure: I play in a fantasy football league with a Christian friend who goes to First Baptist, though not all of the league are Christians. This year, they did a draft party and his work friends, who are non believers, suggested we do it at Hooters because of some deal they had. I actually voiced my preference for a different place, but since most of his work friends make up the part of the league in Fort Smith (the others are in Tulsa where we went to college), they went with Hooters.
I honestly struggled whether or not to go to the draft party. I prayed about it, and God asked me what kind of message I wanted to send. I decided to go to check it out (I’d never been to Hooters before).
They offered me drinks, and I simply said that’s not what my faith is about. And, overall, it went smoothly and I got to know my friend’s work buddies better.
That being said, if I ever had a daughter, I wouldn’t want her to work at place like Hooters. The waitress told us that we were a lot nicer than her typical group.
So I think your answer fits: Honoring God with our actions. There’s no Scripture that specifically bans us from Hooters, but there are plenty of Scriptures that warn us against drunkenness and hanging out with the wrong crowd.
I agree!
I concur! God gave us warnings and guidelines. It would be to our benefit if we heed them.
How to treat ALL women.
1 Timothy 5:2 And elder women as mothers, and those who are younger, as your sisters in all purity.
Would one ogle their Mother or Sister? Lets hope not. Does Hooter’s encourage ogling? ABSOLUTELY!
We honor God when we don’t go with the flow to set foot in a place that promotes Lust. We honor God when we don’t PRETEND there is nothing wrong with patronizing Hooter’s, while we ourselves would not want our daughters to work there. We honor God when we don’t spend our income in an establishment that exploits women’s sexuality. They ARE the wrong crowd, and making a killing being so. Amen
Hear, hear!
Just please remember that Hyper-Grace is dangerous. We should just stick to God’s plain words and will—his commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and all his other teachings. Lastly, people should never forget this part:
Jesus said “go, and sin no more,” not “go, and continue sinning.” You are not your own; you were bought with a price, and so honor God, honor your body, and honor others.