When my brother and I were little my dad would polish our shoes on Sunday mornings and lecture us to make sure we didn't scuff our shoes. Every week was the same, the shoes were scuffed, my dad polished them and we got a lecture.

I always kind of wondered why moms and dads made us dress up for Sunday mass. Let’s get real, I don’t think God cared what you wore. His only requirements were that you went to church on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

I still remember the nuns brow beating the 10 commandments into our memories. And defining what a sacrament was. To this day I can recite the definition of sacrament, word for word, while I envision the crabby face of my second grade nun teacher. Ahhh, those were the days. All you had to do was go to confession on Saturday morning, and then you could mess around and sin over the next 6 days, and all would be forgiven again.

Horse and pony show full of pageantry

Pretty much anything goes now, except the black churches, those folks got some fancy, colorful duds...

Lord dont get started, them old lady's will run off the younger women pretty quick though...tend to get a lil territorial of the preacher man

Suit and Tie could not afford much, but needed a suit and tie for Church. An important thing in my Family bringing up.

Here the old timers had one good suit and one good pair of shoes no matter how poor they were, for church and to be buried in.

As it should be

My wife dresses me up and demands I change when we get home…. I tend to ruin clothes…

Thankfully all that dress-up nonsense ended here (west coast) in about 1970. I remember battles royale around the house in the late 60's on Sunday mornings between my partents and my two older, late teen brothers. By the time I hit my teens, 1971, it was pretty much dress as you please.

X2
both set of grandparents, they lived a block and a half apart on the same street.

It's good to dress to show some respect but...everyone is welcome here. Show up with tattoos, long hair, sweats, and piercings and I hope we welcome you and treat you well. Jesus was scolded by church leadership for eating with "tax collectors and sinners". That said, I've sent my kids back to their rooms to try again with a different outfit before church several times.

Kiwi was all we used in the army. It was by far the best.

Now thats funny

Maybe the whole "dress up" thing isn't about how God views us, but about showing respect for how we view God?

That's were it is at for me. You wouldn't go to a job interview in your worst clothes. Respectfulness is a good value to have. Like anything if ur doing it for the wrong reasons it can be a bad thing.

Good practice for going into the military!