Wow it's been a long time since I've posted...Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!
Over a year ago I read Dressing with Dignity and have decided to wear only skirts and dresses for reasons of maintaining modesty and preserving a dignified femininity. The only place where I'm not allowed to wear skirts is at work. I work in small family-owned grocery store and I'm a cashier - so I could still preform my job while wearing a skirt.
I wrote a letter to the non-traditional Catholic owner asking him to change the dress code allowed at work. He hasn't responded to it yet (please pray that God may give him guidance), but here's my problem: if he says no, do I continue to work there?
It's a good job and I've been a loyal employee for almost 3 years. But is it right for me to sacrifice what I believe in for a job? Does that make it alright? I could really use some advice on how to handle this. Thanks!
Perhaps there's a better way of approaching this. Prayer is, of course, good, but I would imagine that if you talked with the manager or owner you could get some exception.
Being a man, and a business man, he wants to keep his employees happy. It's not a religious issue, of course, it's one of modesty. If you were to explain that you feel that pants are not an ideal of modesty and you would like to wear a skit to maintain that modesty, I would imagine the manager or owner would not say "No". You might have to work out a specific set of colors or rules for what skirts you could wear. He may allow you to have a simple dark skirt, but probably wouldn't be thrilled with a skirt that is a bright bouquet of roses.
I would just talk with him, not worry too much. And see if you can talk face to face. If not that, talk to him over the phone, perhaps. Be honest and heartfelt in your convictions and I doubt he would say no, and at least would work something out.
If he decides that you cannot wear a skirt, you have to analyze that decision yourself. Does it mean that your modesty concerns are not important enough? Is that a place where you feel comfortable working? Does it transition into other areas?
You have to decide whether you wish to keep working at such a place, if the decision is not in your favor, and I think its reasonable to think more broadly than this one issue when you make that decision.
Perhaps it's not prudent to take issue with the statement "Wearing Pants in not a sin". I would completely agree that it is not a sin, but I wonder if that is the paradigm we should use to determine if we can do something. Not a sin, it's okay. Sin, it's not okay.
It's not a sin to spend your day busied in many activities. It may not be a sin to neglect some of your prayers, but it's certainly not a good thing to neglect prayers. I'd say the paradigm should be, is what we do helping us move closer to some ideal, or not? If not, we should look for better ways to move closer toward God.
I'm not going to say whether wearing pants occasionally does that, but I'm just offering some food for thought.
