The principle behind the rule

One of the things that I noticed about Afton when I first starting attending, is all the rules. Not because they were preached or pushed down my throat every service, but just because people looked different to me. I was raised Baptist. My Dad was a Baptist missionary and I was born on the mission field in Alaska. I was raised with conservative standards of dress. (For those of you not familiar with this term, it just simple means I didn't wear pants.) However; I did not understand several of the other "rules" I observed: no make-up, no jewelery, long hair, etc. One of the things I would really like to use this forum for is to explain the principle behind "the rules" that the Holiness women subscribe to. I was recently talking with Mark, another Sunday School teacher at Afton regarding this very thought. He gave me a great example that I would like to share with you.

If there was a leak in a pipe and someone put a clamp on that leak and asked you to hold the clamp, you wouldn't have any problem doing that. But what if they left you holding the clamp and didn't come back. How long would you hold the clamp? If it were me, I would really get tired of holding the clamp and would let go. What if the person who had you hold the clamp explained to you that if you let go of the clamp, the water line would explode and several people would be killed, how long would you hold the clamp? If they had explained the reason I needed to hold the clamp on and that the consequence's of letting go of the clamp is that people would die, I would hold on until I physically could no longer hold on. It is the same way with standards. If you just try to follow "the rules", you can for awhile, but if you don't understand the principle behind the rule, it won't be long until you give up. I want to explain the principles behind "the rules" that are taught here at Afton.

Here is where I would like your comments. Post to me what things you would like to see addressed first. For instance, what the bible says about long hair, jewelery, make-up, dress, etc. I will address each of those topics and feel free to post me additional topics that you want me to address.