Thursday night, the freshman, women dorm that I am an RA at held an event called “Dare to be Free.” This event focused in on the struggles that women face, daring women to let Christ free them from these struggles.

To start the event, we passed out a questionnaire that had many different struggles on it including: masturbation, sexual limits within a relationship, pornography, eating disorders, body image, insecurities within relationships, comparison, pride, jealousy, gossip, etc. We asked them to mark which struggles they have/are struggling with, then asked them to fold up their piece of paper and place it back into the basket.

We passed back around the basket and had each woman pull out a piece of paper.

We then read through the list and asked the woman in the room to stand when a struggle was marked on their paper as the list was being read.

On every struggle, almost all the women in room stood up with the exclusion of just a couple of struggles. This fact astounded me – even though this perhaps should not have. Seeing the hurt and pain of so many women was something that I had known, but I had never physically been able to see. These women struggle. They struggle with deep things.

No. One. Is. Vocal. About. It.

This. Is. Not. Okay.

After we read off the list, we entered into a time of sharing. Three RAs and myself shared on different struggles we had/are facing and shared how Christ has/is working in our lives. This was a great time of sharing. One day, I might be bold enough to share my struggles that I have and am struggling with online, but for now, I will not. If you would like to know, ask and I will pray about sharing with you. 😉 haha

Following the time of sharing, we had a panel (the 12 staff members of my RA staff) answer questions that people sent in via text. These questions were deep. These questions were to the core of what we all believe about ourselves (whether or not the beliefs were true or not). These questions were challenging even to the 11 other people on my staff with me.

I left that night at that event wanting badly to tell those women until I was blue in the face that Christ loved them and valued them and is pursuing them. I wanted to tell those girls that a life full of Christ is so much more valuable and worth pursuing than any other relationship with any other person on this planet. I wanted to tell those girls that their worth is not determined by any other resource (magazine, TV show, celebrity, movie, book, boy, girl, group of people, thing, themselves, etc.) on the planet except for by Christ and what his word to us says.

So that is what I am going to do (sorta).

~~~

To women of all shapes and sizes, cultures, skin colors, religion, short, tall, skinny, fat, brunette, blonde, black-haired, gingy [ 😉 ], white-haired, wrinkly, braces, no braces, glasses, trendy, wears hand-me-downs, extroverted, introverted, and whatever earthly things you are identified by:

You are so beautiful.
You are loved by the God of the universe and were created in His image.
You are precious in His sight and he knows the number of hairs on your head.
He died on the cross to make you daughters of Him, the King.
He has adopted you and you are now heirs of His throne.
He has taken your sin and your struggles upon Himself and has counted you as clean, righteous, holy.

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These are the things that identify you. These are the labels that define your worth. Nothing in this world can define that…only Christ can.

“Your blood speaks a better word
Than all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth
Speaks righteousness for me
And stands in my defense
Jesus it’s Your blood”
Your Blood- By: Matt Redman

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
(Proverbs 31:30 ESV)

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” -2 Corinthians 12:9

To Be Continued… =)