Emily Wilson - Women's Session - Steubenville Atlanta 2014

so being a woman is awesome for so many different reasons we wear front shoes and all these kinds of things but we have a great great mission that God has put us on God entrusts like you said we can have children we can become mothers God entrusts the human being to us in a special way and as a woman we must become fully aware of the greatness of the mission that God has for us in the world we must become fully aware of this but we can never be fully aware of that mission if we don't first look at our identity our identity has how Christ sees us and how that directly affects how we see ourselves one of my favorite verses in the Bible comes from Song of Songs it's Song of Songs 4 7 and it says you are altogether beautiful my love there is no flaw in you each and every single one of us this is the cool thing in Genesis it says you are fearfully wonderfully made we are made in the image and likeness of God whoa the image and likeness of God and what is God God is perfect and he created each and every single one of you like it said in that song of songs you are altogether beautiful my love there is no flaw in you that is your identity your identity is Christ is Christ living inside of you and the truth of Christ living inside of you is the beautiful truth that you are enough right we live in this crazy crazy crazy world that says really at the base of it all you're not enough you all of you and me the world tells us you are not enough so do this do that buy this buy that buy these clothes buy this make up and then you might be pretty enough then you might be thin enough then you might be happy right we become deaf to our identity in Christ because of the noise of the world right because of the noise of the magazines that you and I see because of the noise of what we see on social media what other girls are posting we become deaf to Christ speaking our identity into us our identity of Christ our identity that says you are altogether beautiful my love there is no flaw in you so we look at that we look at our identity and if no one has ever told you before that you are enough you are pretty enough you are smart enough you are good enough I'm here to tell you that today and I want to go a little deeper into that each and every single one of you are made in that image and likeness and Christ speaks individually to each one of your hearts each one of you it's a blanket statement for all of us but he speaks that into your life you are altogether beautiful and you are perfectly made in my image so our identity must always be found in Christ and that's when we are able to feel free to be ourselves because that's another thing the world tells us that we have to fit a mold right we have to be this kind of girl we have to be this kind of person and things are gonna help us do that things and stuff is gonna help us be that girl but it's not things that are gonna do that it's having a relationship with Christ it's looking at Christ looking at the way Christ sees me then we are able to be ourselves then we are able to be true and genuine one of my favorite quotes comes from CS Lewis it says when they are holy his they will be more themselves than ever so when we look at ourselves we look at our relationship with Christ if I know that my identity in Christ is everything that makes me up God can transform everything he made in each and every single one of us to reflect his beauty to reflect His grace and we can feel free to be ourselves you can feel free to be the girl that you feel that you are inside you know all your crazy personality traits all the quirks that you have whatever that might be when you are wholly God's when you belong to God and you look at Christ in the way he sees you you will be more yourself than ever and if we know that identity that positively affects our self-esteem I think a huge problem among us young women in the world is our low self-esteem because of the things I've talked about because the world tells us that we're not enough but if we understand that Christ is our identity that raises our self-esteem we're able to feel good about ourselves because we think about the way Christ sees us and we're not worried about the way the world sees us we're not worried about the way the person next to us sees us because we know the way Christ sees us and we're able to feel good about what we do about what we accomplish we're able to feel okay when we make mistakes and when we fail because we know the way Christ sees us we're able to be genuine and free and reflect the light of Christ I'm going to invite up my good friend Paul Kim I want him to talk to a little bit with you guys about how in our identity as we reflect the beauty and the love of Christ so everybody give Paul a hand I know it's not really normal to have a boy in the women session but we really wanted him to speak to you guys a little from a man's perspective my name is Paul and I find you all very beautiful and attractive because God created you that way now ladies it's a shame and Emily's gonna get more into this but there are so many messages out there telling you that you are not beautiful how many times have you walked through a market you see the tabloids on the side of the aisle and you're like she says Kenny I tried doing that once and I almost died how can I ever be like her and you're always measuring yourself up you look through these magazines and by the end of it you feel ugly you feel fat you don't feel good enough you feel like you're not beauty you're not worthy you're not a daughter of God you lose your identity is as Emily's just talking about your identity in Christ you forget about all that because you get swept away by these tabloids and so what these tabloids do they attack your beauty they tell you that you need to dress certain ways you need to act certain ways right it's it's amazing how often you know there look they're trying to help you in life about your love life so they're like ladies do you want to get the guys you need to dress the part you need to hike up that skirt pull down that blouse in so many ways you're told all these lies and so you go and you follow these instructions and what ends up happening you end up getting hurt it's amazing how often in my own life throughout high school and college and after I've seen girls who are constantly trying to possess this relationship because they feel like the only way that they're beautiful enough that they're they're actually worthy of something is by being in a relationship if you're single raise your hand real quick lucky the guys aren't in here they'd be like oh you too okay can I have it can I have your number can I have it raise your hand raise your hand again keep it up ladies take a deep breath if you're single you're perfectly fine you don't have to be in a relationship to know you're beautiful I'm serious cuz ladies amen there's a lot of girls out there because they don't think they're beautiful because they don't know their self-worth what do they think I need to be in a relationship and so they'll like sniff out a guy who smells good and be like I love you and what they're really saying is I need you and ladies if you are that needy if you think you need a guy to complete you in that way at that moment you do not need to be in a relationship cuz ladies you need to learn how to love yourselves amen ladies it's so important and you know the guys are somewhere on this campus talking about guy things and thank God you don't have to be there cuz we're kind of weird and smelly but the truth is we all have our share of struggles we all have our insecurities we all have the things that we battle with on a daily basis but the truth is that God offers us so much more it is frightening how many girls out there they look in the mirror each day and they hate what they see they hate what they see it's it's shocking how many girls have eating disorders it's shocking how many girls cut themselves it's sad and ladies that's not who God created you to be God wants you to be free God wants you to know yourself worth God wants you to thrive as women because ladies you don't you're not just here to to be another statistic you're not here to be another heart broken person you're here to offer your beauty and your strength to the world amen God has created you with the specific vocation and it is to be beautiful it's to reflect literally the beauty of Christ I can't tell you just this whole weekend just from a man's perspective right and not in a creepy way I promise I'm too old for you anyways I'm 31 when I see you walking down the hallways and you're smiling and you're radiant and you're joyful I'm just like oh god you're so beautiful in them like I see God's Beauty reflected in each of you when I look at you I'm just like they are so beautiful and I hope they never lose that smile I really mean that god bless me personally with with a companion on on my journey and if they can pull up the slide please on the the big screen that's my wife that's my boo that's my girl you my world no but seriously she's beautiful and she's beautiful on the inside and and I can't tell you enough about how grateful I am that God sent her to me and I had to fight for her and I it took God years to prepare my heart to be the right husband for her and I'm gonna share a little bit later this morning in the keynote how really I had to overcome a lot of my junk I had to work and process through and I'm not done but it was that very process of beginning the journey of learning how to love myself as a man learning how to overcome my faults and my insecurities which led me towards certain behaviors that weren't good for me so that I could become the right person for the right girl that God was sent to me when I was ready a lot of you think that you need to be in a relationship now a lot of you think being single is like the scourge of the world it's like worse than detention right forever alone take you hash tag everything with that but ladies let me tell you that being single is a gift because it is an opportunity for you to learn your dignity in Christ it is an opportunity for you to grow because it's not gonna solve all your problems in life to be in a relationship I can't tell you how blessed I am but I can also tell you how difficult it is to be married there is a beauty and there's a joy that I cannot describe to you but every day it is a challenge why because the vocation to marriage challenges me to be selfless it challenges me to love even when I don't feel like it it challenges me to see past my faults and her faults and to reflect Christ and so friends sisters as you continue to learn about your dignity in Christ I want you to know that you're right were you supposed to be and that a relationship doesn't solve all of your problems just watch Jerry Springer ladies you're beautiful you have my prayers I'm grateful for each of you and I'm thankful for Emily for her witness amen thank you Paul so Paul says you don't have to be in a relationship to be fulfilled which is true but I don't want you to feel like if you're sitting there and you are in a relationship it's a bad thing because dating in high school is okay but the purpose of dating is what we have to remember the purpose of dating as young people and what is that to have fun well yeah to get married but to have fun to learn about ourselves and to learn about what we what kind of qualities we would want to see in a future husband right so many people in high school take dating so seriously right we meet that one guy and after a week girls can be like oh yeah we are gonna get married I start looking at the not calm all right start looking at wedding dresses putting the name together all those kinds of things and we invest so much into these relationships and that's not healthy for us so if you are in a relationship just remember that it's supposed to be fun you're supposed to learn about yourselves and learn about those qualities but if we know our true identity like I talked about unlike Paul I talked about that affects every decision we make in terms of our dating life in terms of our guys who our friends in terms of the guys we choose to date so if I know that my identity in Christ is Christ looking at me and telling me that I'm beautiful that I have worth that I am worthy of true genuine authentic love am I going to settle for guys that use me M going to settle for guys that put me down am I going to go to parties seeking out meaningless hookups no I'm not gonna do any of those things because I know my worth and I know that my worth is in Christ so many girls are looking for that love because we all seek that love we all yearn to be loved and society says go out and find that love through those hookups find that love in a guy in society is telling men the men that are over there in the ballroom then it's okay to use us it's okay to put us down it's okay to just treat us in a way that we shouldn't be treated and it breaks my heart to see to work with high school girls and to see them look for that love you guys were all created for a love greater than that amen you were all created for an authentic and genuine and true love can I tell you a little bit about my life maybe sort of possibly sorted Paul and I are kind of gonna be twinning Carl if you could bring up that picture that would be awesome so that's my man that's Daniel and I want to tell you a little bit about Daniel in the way I've been able to see my worth and see that kind of authentic love in my life so I went over to Europe where's the best place to meet a guy trick question Church Church is the best place you're gonna meet a guy so I went over to Europe to lead worship at a conference and I met Daniel there Daniel was involved at the conference and he gave a witness about his life and I was able to see that he was living an authentic life in Christ I was able to see that and we got to talk and have conversations and it was really wonderful I had lost a lot of hope that there were good men that there were holy men because these days as you guys know they are very few and far between I know a lot of girls in their 20s who are hoping to get married and they just can't find guys who are gonna step up who want a life of commitment and a life of faith so I went home and I got a letter from Daniel do you mind if I read a little bit of it to you so it was while I was heading home and he says you are currently on a plane heading home heading to those you love and who love you Emily I cannot express the impact you've left on me your witness of being you living your life out totally for Christ has left me completely in awe you're an instrument of God and I cannot thank him enough for allowing me to get to know you your truth your openness your trust your loving spirit and fearless faith have truly inspired me I must add God has placed a sense on my heart a desire to pursue you it is hard for me to explain because honestly I haven't felt anything like it before but I feel desires to honor serve protect but most importantly do whatever I can to lead you ever closer to Christ in each possible way right and my world stopped in that moment because I early on when I was your guys's age I knew that I was called to the vocation of marriage and I had hoped and prayed that one day I could find a man who a sees me the way Christ sees me and B wants to treat me with an authentic and genuine love and I'm here to tell you today that each and every single one of you in this room deserves nothing less nothing less than a man who wants to honor you and protect you you deserve more than guys who are gonna put you in the confession line you deserve more than guys who use you for your body and I know some of you in this room are in relationships that you know are not good for you and maybe you're here this weekend to hear from God that you need to get out because you deserve nothing less than authentic true and genuine love and like Paul said it took him a long time to come to that he had to get over a lot of his junk and that's why I encouraged you guys in high school don't take relationships too seriously because a lot of these guys aren't ready to give you that authentic love they're not ready to honor you in the way that you're supposed to be honored to love you in the way that you're supposed to be loved but you deserve nothing less than that when I was 16 years old I was at the conference I had been at the conference since I was 13 and I knew that Catholicism taught me to save sex for marriage I knew that and then I heard women's sessions and I heard about why why that is important and it's so important some of you will be called to the vocation of marriage some of you will be called to be a sister I don't know what God what the plan God has for your life is but your virginity is not something to be lost it's a gift to be given a gift to be given either to your future spouse or a gift to be consecrated to God and this weekend we learned a lot about mercy the mercy of God and how Christ looks at us in our sin and looks at our brokenness and says it's okay I forgive you you are made new and whole again so I don't know where you're at in your life with chastity but I have we have chastity cards I don't know who has those but there are volunteers back there who are gonna give out chastity cards and these cards just make a little promise and I sign one when I was your age a promise that says I'm gonna live out chastity and not just saving sex for marriage living a life with chastity overflows into the way that I dress living a life of chastity overflows into the movies that I watch in the music that I listen to chastity isn't about what we can't do all the rules like don't do this don't do that it's about the beautiful life that we get to live because we choose virtue we choose grace and we choose Christ in our womanhood in everything that we do so you guys are gonna get these cards and I want you to take a look at what it says maybe you're not ready to sign off on it today maybe you are but it's just a promise between you and God to live that life of chastity to live virtue to choose good for yourself maybe you have been involved in a relationship that was not good for you maybe you have been involved in sins against chastity sometimes there's such innocent things that we don't even think about things like sexting right we just flirt innocently with guys via text message because we feel like it Kylie you can go ahead and take the picture down thank you it can be such a thing that we don't think about be sins against chastity and now is the time for you to say hey God I want to live a life of chastity I want to live a life or I choose you I want to live a life or I choose virtue and I choose grace so if you're ready to sign that card that is wonderful you go ahead and sign off we'll have a part time later if you want to sign it then that's great that's no problem but choosing chastity will make your life more rich and more full it's not gonna make your life some set of rules that you have to follow you get to say yes to Christ and you get to say yes to the joy that comes from not and the peace and the grace and if you want to start over today it's never too late to see Lord I've lived every sin against chastity and today I want to choose that so they'll be handing those out you can go ahead and like I said sign that now sign it later that's a positive decision every decision we make as young women affects the rest of our life today that is a huge opportunity to make a very positive decision for yourself another thing I want to talk to you guys about a sisterhood right you got all your sisters around you you met a couple new girls right great it's so good to be among other women and one is wrong with us we spend so much of our time ripping each other apart right saying mean things to each other gossiping about each other whatever that looks like saying mean things to one another's faces a lot of it you know we've become cowardly and we just say mean things online we're able to hide behind a computer screen and talk about other girls right but if we started as sisters as women to treat each other as if we know the identity of the other girl that the identity is in Christ and the way we treat her were treating Christ that could transform all our relationships with each other right you guys know that girl in your school that people don't pay attention to you know that girl in your school that's a big nerd that no one wants to sit with no one wants to be around no one wants to talk to her I knew that girl when I was a teacher when I was a campus minister at that school her name was Hannah she was 4 foot 11 about 90 pounds tiny she was 17 years old though tiny slim girl you ever saw she had an embarrassing incident at the school and after that no one would look at her no one would talk to her she would try to sit with girls at lunch and they would just ignore her totally ignore her she tried and tried I haven't encouraged her she would come in after school and say miss Wilson they would call miss Wilson you're my only friend I don't know what to do now I encouraged her Hanna just go just be nice to the girls hopefully they'll be nice back to you and the girls just wouldn't do it so I caught up with her a couple months ago I texted her I said Hanna how are you she said I'm so great I'm so excited I booked a couple girls invited me to go to Jamba Juice after school tomorrow I didn't mean it made her like her life for her to be invited to go to Jamba Juice after school meet her week her month her year who knows I challenge each and every single one of you to be the girl in your friend group that loves other girls that uplifts other girls that complements other girls genuinely because we need more women who uplift other women amen amen right I challenge you going from this conference if you are the mean girl look at your life look at yourself in the mirror and say why do I feel the need to tear other women down why do I feel that mean because a lot of times that comes from our own insecurities the only reason I'm gonna tear another girl down behind your back it's because I do not feel good about myself and I have forgotten my identity in Christ I forgotten the way Christ looks at me and I have forgotten the way Christ looks at her and we need to let that go we need to eliminate that from our lives we need eliminate the gossip we need to eliminate the cattiness and love one another and lift one another up I want to tell you guys about this woman right here in this picture the woman who comes to the feet of Christ I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and read from Luke chapter 7 the pardon of the sinful woman a Pharisee invited him to dine with him and he entered the Pharisees house and reclined at table now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee bringing an alabaster flask of ointment she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears then she wiped them with her hair kissed them and anointed them with the ointment when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself if this man were a prophet he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him that she is a sinner jesus said to him in reply Simon I have something to say to you tell me teacher he said two people were in debt jesus said to a certain creditor one owed five hundred day's wages and the other owed 50 since they were unable to repay the debt he forgave it for both which of them will love him more Simon said and replied the one I suppose who's larger debt was forgiven he said to him you have judged rightly then he turned to the woman and said to the sign and said to Simon do you see this woman when I entered your house you did not give me water for my feet but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair you did not give me a kiss but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered you did not anoint my head with oil but she anointed my feet with ointment so I tell you her many sins have been forgiven hence she has shown great love but the one to whom little is forgiven loves little he said to her your sins are forgiven others at table said to themselves who is this who even forgives sins but he said to the woman your faith has saved you go in peace we can learn a lot from this woman because the first thing she does is recognize Christ she seeks in her sinfulness she seeks out Christ she hears that he's at the Pharisees house and she goes to find him whatever it takes she goes to find him what does that look like in our lives in all our sinfulness can we go intentionally see Christ here that he is there here that he is at that home and goal no matter what it takes do we have a faith the the faith in our sinfulness to go to Christ and to just kneel before him and let him look at us and forgive us and love us and speak into us you are altogether beautiful my love there is no flaw in you and I imagine him saying this to her here and all of her brokenness she comes and kneels before Christ and he doesn't judge her he is no bad words to say to her he defends her against the Pharisees he defends her against Simon and that that's what Christ wants to do for you she is beautiful and pure in the eyes of Christ as each one of you are in all of our brokenness we can go kneel at the foot of Christ and dive into the depths of his mercy for us dive into the depths of his love for all the things we do wrong all the ways we fail and he looks at that woman and he looks at you and me and he says you are enough you are created in my image do not settle be authentic be yourself and I love you I love you and I hope and pray that you have heard Christ speak that into your life this weekend I love you he says your faith has saved you go in peace and these things we struggle with as women like this woman aren't just struggles that we have just to be had there are short these are struggles that make us depend on Christ that make us run to Christ in our struggles we need to constantly rely on God to get us through them these are the things that will one day make us Saints is to in our struggle look at Christ and rely on Christ we're gonna go into a time of Prayer in a little bit but before that I want you guys during this time of Prayer I challenge you to look at your life maybe there's some things you need to change I don't know what that is maybe it's time for you to stop bullying other girls maybe it's time for you to look at your identity in Christ and say my size doesn't matter maybe it's time for you to end that relationship maybe it's time for you to ask Christ reveal my identity to me help me to see that I am beautiful because I am yours God is writing a beautiful story for each and every single one of you and we stuff so many things that get in the way and we try and write our own story we try to write it and we try and fill our lives with so many things other than Christ and I want to challenge you to look at that are you letting God write your story are you letting him unfold your story or are you putting things between you and him that are keeping him that are keeping you from him that are keeping you from that relationship each and every single one of you was created like I've said for a great purpose and I don't want you guys to settle for anything less than that for anything less than just being able to stand in front of the mirror and say I love I love Who I am I love who God created me to be I want you guys to feel free to be yourselves that's crazy beautiful as you desire to be I want you guys to know the way Christ looks at you and trust the way Christ looks at you not only know it but believe it in your bones every time you wake up in the morning to say I am beautiful because I belong to Christ I want you guys to be able to wake up and go throughout your day and know that and believe that amen

Channel: Steubenville Youth Conferences

Views: 6,496

Rating: 4.9459457 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Charismatic, Youth Conference, Evangelization

Id: JoGaKnjfxW4

Length: 38min 48sec (2328 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 02 2015