I am old enough to remember when women who desired to be “shapelier” wore girdles, but not quite old enough to remember corsets – thank heavens. Both were worn to reshape the waist – the “core” area as it were.
Today, girdles and corsets have been replaced by Spanx and building up your core muscles. Admittedly, building up your core muscles, those muscles throughout your abdomen and along your spine, also serves a health purpose that I’m not sure girdles, corsets or Spanx can even aspire to.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of any of these. I prefer loose, flowing clothing and I only work on my core muscles when it becomes too painful to ignore them any longer. It turns out that sitting on your butt isn’t actually considered a healthy lifestyle.
Categorizing girdles and such as belts is quite a stretch, and yet many translations of Ephesians 6:14 would have you girding yourself for battle with the Belt of Truth. Putting on a Belt of Truth just doesn’t have the panache of girding yourself with truth and yet talking about the girdle of truth seems awkward. But if the goal is to secure ourselves, our very core, with truth, then a belt seems frail and inadequate. The two primary functions of belts are to hold up your pants, in which case suspenders do a better job, and to accessorize your outfit. The suspenders of truth or the cute belt with the silver buckle of truth really don’t capture the idea of preparing for battle, of securing your core being with truth. Conversely “girding oneself” is not a phrase used much any more.
What does remain here is the idea that our core selves, what keeps us upright and strong, what allows us to fight and lift, and throw, and swing a sword, need to be surrounded and upheld by God’s truth.
Just Sayin' 