True Beauty!

On April 18 & 19th I was asked to be the guest speaker at a Christian Retreat for Jr and Sr. high school girls. My mom and I traveled about 5 hours to Indiana to spend some quality time with a group of amazing young girls! There were about 40 girls in attendance. They were so much fun and to think they are all my sister-in-Christ is mind blowing!

The weekend was spent learning about True Beauty and what it really is. What is true beauty???? I think that true beauty comes from within. It is how you feel about yourself and present that to the world!! How you give of your heart and volunteer service to others, your integrity, and pure heart. It is not about hair or eye color, or height, or weight, or fancy clothes, or perfect make-up. It is all about knowing who you are in Christ!!! It is that simple! He sees us so differently than how we see ourselves!

Friday night we heard a sermon by Pastor Billy Holden about how we treat others. And how we respond to others who are different than we are. He literally duct taped a man to a chair. His ankles and hands were bound. His ears, eyes, and mouth too. He was like that for almost 50 minutes, but the hardest part was watching him be "tortured" by Pastor Billy. The taped man was slapped, hit, and had a chair smahed over him. It was very upsetting to watch and it was getting hotter by the minute in the "sanctuary" area. Everyone was getting nervous, but it turned out fine and the duct taped man was not injured. It was definitely a sermon I will never forget. It made me think how we torture ourselves at times too.

On Saturday, the guys and girls had seperate agendas. The guys played sports and talked about guy issues. We girls had 3 different speakers on different subjects: inner beauty, purity, modesty. Then we were pampered with hair, make-up, and spa stations to visit. It was fun and I enjoyed sharing with the girls hair and make-up tips. After we were pampered, I was the final speaker of the weekend. I was asked to tie it all together. I was also asked to share with the girls how I deal with peer pressure on a daily basis. How do I view myself? How do I handle the pressure of always having to be "beautiful" when I may not feel like it? And boyfriend issues too.

I spoke to the girls honestly and shared with them that I waited until my 16th birthday for my first kiss. I think they were kind of floored!! : ) But it's true! I wanted to be able to say "Sweet Sixteen and Never Been Kissed" and I am glad I waited!!! : ) I shared how when I am dating someone I let them know right away that I will only hold hands, hug, and kiss. Anything further than that will not happen with me. If they are looking for sex they have the wrong girl. I want to be able to wait for my wedding night.

I shared with the girls that EVERY girl has to deal with self image problems. Even pageant girls including me. When I was 12 years old, I was already 5'8" tall with long red hair and very white skin. My nickname was "Clifford the Big Red Dog" and it really hurt. I thought I was ugly and too different. I had very few friends, didn't fit in, and didn't like myself at all. When I really stopped to learn that it is not the outside that makes us who we are, but the inside, I started to like myself. I began to develop a positive attitude about being unique and different. For me, it has made all the difference! When I truly embraced who I am my life got better and better!! My confidence in myself grew and I realized that I have alot to offer others, and the world, by just being myself! I think once you accept yourself your true beauty will really shine through!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am sure you have heard this before. We girls were divided into groups and were told to cut out physical features from magazine models to "perfect" a true beauty and glue them on a sheet of paper!! No one could agree on what beauty was and the pictures were hilarious because nothing was symmetrical and the "models" couldn't have been uglier. All we could do was laugh, but it was a great lesson to see that beauty to one person is different for another.

I would like to thank Pastor Mandy Holden for inviting me to speak to these girls. It was such a blessing and honor to be a part of something that was so special!! I think the girls appreciated all the hard work and effort that went into making this weekend all about them! The make-overs were amazing and Pastor Mandy put her whole heart into doing something extra nice for the youth group and speaking so eloquently herself about waiting until marriage for sex!

Many of these girls still write to me through myspace and facebook and text me too! I am so blessed to have all these new friends!

At the conclusion of of one session, each of us recieved a piece of paper marking our promise to wait until we are married to become sexually involved. It was a commitment card and I have it taped inside my Bible! It was a great weekend and I hope that lives have been changed forever and that these amazing girls will know that their true beauty comes from within!