This is it!  The 2013 Swimsuit edition of Embracing Modesty.  I’m so excited!

I want to start by telling you how we choose what we will wear for swimming.  While we need to be comfortable and have free movement in the water, we are never willing to compromise the convictions that we have about how we should dress.  It may feel weird at first, but if you have a conviction to cover yourself more than a typical swimsuit will cover, then you may have to give up that fear of feeling out of place and stop wearing them.

For our swimwear we have the same basic boundaries that we have for our regular clothes.  We don’t show our shoulders, cleavage, thighs, etc. It isn’t easy to find things to wear that are affordable and within our boundaries.  The trick is to be flexible and think outside the box.

As a basic beginning, we all have one-piece bathing suits that we wear underneath some of our swimwear.  In most of these photos we are wearing those under what you can see.  We do this because the tops we wear will occasionally float up when we’re swimming or playing in the water.  Uh-oh!

I’ll start with our oldest daughter, Grace.  She has a swimsuit we purchased years ago from a company called Wholesome Wear.  She wears it constantly every summer and it has held up beautifully.  She loves it.

The whole thing, including leggings underneath and the cute little sleeved top, is one piece that just zips up the front.  It is very lightweight and comfortable.  I’d be happy to buy these for all of the girls, but they are a bit costly.  Plus we need more than one suit since we swim almost every day, sometimes twice a day.

My friend Sara bought a darling modest swimsuit for her 10 year old daughter.  This suit from Meant to Be Modest is triple cuteness!

But don’t worry….there are plenty of options if you can’t afford or don’t want to wear these types of suits.  I look for short, stretchy summer dresses that would be easy to swim in.  Then we put bike shorts and a one-piece bathing suit underneath. And we feel great about what we are wearing!

For this season I found short dresses at Sam’s Club made from lycra, so they are perfect to swim in.  Hope is wearing a one-piece and bike shorts under the dress.  She will swim in this….it won’t come off when she gets in the water.  These are available right now at Sam’s.  $16.98.  YES!

Another idea is a dress made from t-shirt knit.  Again, bathing suit and bike shorts under it complete the look.  She swam in this all summer last year and it worked great!

I would suggest Old Navy, Target, Walmart and Cato for these little dresses.  They aren’t that hard to find once you get your radar going.

Sometimes we wear lightweight shorts with a long top.  These shorts are made with fabric that dries quickly.  We just look for loose fitting shorts that we think would do well in the water.  This is our backup-because-everything-else-is-dirty option.

And me, well I don’t care much for swimwear.  But since we have a pool I do like to swim in the summer, and I LOVE the beach.  So I found a stretchy skirt and top that works well for me. I have a blue shirt on in this photo, but I don’t wear a that underneath if I’m getting in the water.  I just have the one-piece bathing suit under the black top.  Oh!  And I have this is other colors also.  When I saw these in the store I got 3 of them.

Please excuse my pasty white legs.  They rarely see the light of day.

I can’t tell you how wonderful it has been for us to be able to let go of the expectations to wear bikinis/bathing suits that expose parts of our body that we are not comfortable with showing.  Not only has it given us a complete confidence, but I have been blessed with some wonderful conversations with strangers that see us on the beach.  They walk over to tell me how grateful they are that we are modestly dressed and I get to reply with love and acceptance of Christ.

Here are a few final tips:

*When buying a knit dress, be sure to check the neckline for stretching.  If it stretches easily it could become a problem with the weight of the water.
*If you’re not buying actual swimwear, look for the lightest weight fabrics you can find.  Otherwise it will be too heavy when it gets wet.
*Makes sure the shoulders are high or if you can pin a strap across the back of them so they don’t slip down when you swim. It kills all of the fun when your top keeps slipping around!
*Avoid reds.  They tend to bleed and fade easily.
*If you’re going for shorts, we also like looking in the men’s swim shorts section.  Often they have long floral shorts that could be feminine if put with a cute top..
*Sometimes it’s easier to find knit dresses that are tank top style.  We just put a cute rash guard under those!
*Don’t be afraid to cut off the bottom of a longer knit skirt if you think it would be good for swimming.  Knits don’t ravel, so you can just cut them off wherever you want!
*If you have trouble finding one-piece suits that cover enough, look for polo suits or lifeguard suits.  They go up high on the neck and have much more coverage.

I hope you found some ideas here for ways to look modest even when swimming.  Thanks so much for all of your encouragement through this series.  The response has been amazing!

Check out the rest of this series in our Embracing Modesty Gallery!

If you like these posts I’d love for you to follow me on Facebook!