We visited some friends recrently, and their daughter that was a bit over a year old was playing around and swimming naked because she "likes to" all the time. The parents are believers too, but they dont mind at all, though it bothered me a bit.
Any thoughts on this?
My thoughts are that the parents are very foolish.
Babies are innocent. God must have been foolish too to make Adam and Eve naked as well.
I have a daughter too who is less than a year old. I pray everyday for wisdom to bring her up for the lord. She is a great gift but like every gift comes great responsibility. I pray acknowledging my lack of wisdom to bring her up.
One sign of this lack of wisdom is to NOT judge other parents based on how they brought up their children. Because when I judge others I show that I have a wisdom of my own and it makes my confession invalid.
1 Corinthians 4:7:-What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
mguldner wrote:
"Babies are innocent. God must have been foolish too to make Adam and Eve naked as well."
Babies are indeed innocent. But adults are not. And we are no longer living in Eden.
Allowing a young girl/boy to skinny dip in the presence of family only would seem ok; allowing this in the presence of strangers seems questionable. I believe it is important to begin teaching modesty at a young age. As a parent, we can't leave this decision to children who are too young to know any better, just because they "like" to run around naked. My three year old grandson likes to run around naked but his parents do not allow him to do so(if they can catch him!)
Further, the "loving" thing for the parents to do would be to not make strangers/friends feel uncomfortable by having to watch their naked child swimming or playing. It places people in an awkward position.
Of course that is only my opinion, which is what the OP was requesting.
There is nothing shameful about a 1 year old child naked swimming in a pool. While I agree around strangers it would be odd but around friends and family I don't see an issue. Also have you ever bought the little swimmers diapers? They are expensive for just a swim.
If this action made the person uncomfortable at that time they should have expressed it to their friend then rather than on a forum. But perhaps they did, they really didn't say.
As a mother I believe it is very important to teach a child that his body is sacred and not to be viewed by the public in its full glory, but to be covered and only exposed to others when essential for health and eventually for a spouse. To do so otherwise is to invite immodesty.
A person could take lessons from the OT law regarding the uncovering of the human body in the presence of the opposite sex.
A person can argue that a child is innocent and it does not matter. I beg to differ. An adult will oogle a young child's body because it is beautiful. The child will learn that and as it grows older will flaunt it for the same purposes and it never stops. Have seen it done - and this will teach females that to gain attention by males you do it by flaunting your nakedness and then invite physical immorality. And parents will wonder where they have gone wrong.
Jochbaptist, I appreciate your concern....one time we went to someone's house to check out an item they had advertised only to find a three year old boy running around butt naked with no shame. Now if the child had been older he could have been arrested for indecent exposure.
My opinion and I feel strongly about it.
ginnyrose
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