"Many preachers speak about personal appearance and decorum and stress the importance of keeping a dignified outer appearance, while the important thing is really the purity of the heart. for if the love of God enters into the heart, all traces of immodesty disappear automatically without the need for preaching. Correcting the inside is the foundation. Yet we tell young men off for the length of their hair, and we tell the girls off for their clothes and long fingernails, and we forget the heart!
Our young people need to know what strength means, and what beauty is, in a spiritual way... Likewise, they ought to know the meaning of real freedom; is it an internal freedom from sin, or is it an indifference or not caring?! Perhaps this change of outlook is what the Apostle Paul meant by his words: “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” (Rom 12:2). We want a generation and people who judge values by spiritual standards which they are convinced are true. Then all their energies can be directed towards the Good. The outward appearance is a sign of something in the heart, and its goodness or its correction will come about through inner conviction not through censure and force. So let us begin with the inside then!"
Our young people need to know what strength means, and what beauty is, in a spiritual way... Likewise, they ought to know the meaning of real freedom; is it an internal freedom from sin, or is it an indifference or not caring?! Perhaps this change of outlook is what the Apostle Paul meant by his words: “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” (Rom 12:2). We want a generation and people who judge values by spiritual standards which they are convinced are true. Then all their energies can be directed towards the Good. The outward appearance is a sign of something in the heart, and its goodness or its correction will come about through inner conviction not through censure and force. So let us begin with the inside then!"
+ HH Pope Shenouda III
