Recently I read about dress regulations for girls that went on a Christian summer camp. I am not going to address the whole issue of whether or not to send your daughter to camp at all here, but will stick with the dress issue for the time being.

This list of clothing girls were allowed to wear or not to wear was rather interesting since it was classified by the author herself (as well as commentators) as being rather conservative, as some of the regulations were more strict than in other churches and included one piece swim suits only. The girls were still allowed to wear pants of course, and skirts had to be no shorter than knee length, t-shirts were to be long enough to cover the midriff and the neck lines high enough to hide any cleavage, though there was no regulation as to tightness, for example. Interestingly enough, flip flops were forbidden.

To me, the regulations sound half hearted and rather arbitrary, to say the least. There seems to be no consistent guideline as to what is considered acceptable, but the criteria appears to be mainly guided by society's standards, and not by biblical standards, not by a general principle that the bible sets.

Now, you might say that the bible doesn't talk about children's clothing a whole lot. Indeed it doesn't. You might say that a girl that is unmarried doesn't need to wear a head covering yet, other than while praying or prophesying, as Paul puts it, since she is not yet under the authority of her husband and seeing her hair does not pose a stumbling block to the brethren. Yes, you might indeed argue this way. But here is why I am still convinced that a woman's modest dress as suggested in the bible should still be worn by our daughters:

Proverbs 22:6 teaches to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." So the direction of teaching, so to speak, is the goal, as always, and the goal is a modest woman who knows what God wants from her. Therefore, it is important not only to be a good example for your daughter, to dress modestly and head cover at all times yourself and to abstain from outward adornment and other vanities, but it is also important to teach your daughters why you do that, and why God wants us women to dress like this.

Read on here:

Teaching the Benefit Of Modest Dress Part 2