Sarah Swafford: "Encounter Who Jesus Calls You To Be" | SEEK2019 Women's Session

jealousy thanks Kelsey don't go now hey how's it going good yes oh my gosh you're a beautiful group of women out there I love my guys over in jki with Jason but I am happy to be with you yes how you guys doing good you feeling good yes and okay so here's the deal I get to do relationships is it not just so fun like what the heck I kind of like it don't be shocked I was cute at 18 wasn't I that was awesome come a long way baby you and me so here's the deal I can't wait to do relationships with this talk with you guys and I may be really honest with you I've been looking forward to this for months but if you're cool with say I know like you know relationships like that's dating right like yeah yeah but are you cool if we do like all relationships like family friends friends with women friends with men hey did you friends with men that's a thing shocking we'll get to it okay good so here's the deal um I want I I know some of you I've hugged many of you I can't wait to hug the rest of you but these are as Lego Batman would call the ships in my life he doesn't do ships I do ships right so these are the ships in my life so this is my family these are this is me like eight super cute so my parents are amazing if you see this really cute couple with me they're here I have two little brothers anybody all boys in your family you're the only girl but yup Hank and Teddy they're super cute they're also a six four so I hey they're always like oh your little sister Sarah I'm like hold up no just because they're a foot taller than me doesn't mean that I'm the youngest right so these are my these are right this is my family and then this is my ship this is my favorite ship there's a swath you guys some of you go sauce you know his name's Andy I call him swath our last name is Swofford so that's who that is right we've been married 13 years he's a you know he's just he's amazing I wish he was here he's way cooler than I am very attractive man and he is no I mean that yeah and then these is my other ship these are these are the people and I don't they fun mmm I have four that's Thomas Fulton Kate Colby and then the little basketball is actually right here this is it was so fun it is so fun being pregnant at any Catholic event at the March for Life I cut in every single bathroom line it was unbelievable right they're like oh my gosh pregnant lady like come right to the friend you want a hotdog what do you want can I get you something to eat like what would you like it's like yeah I would love a burger waiting in line for the bathroom that would be great that'd be awesome so those are my ships like you guys know me like I come to you though my favorite way to give this talk is around my island with massive amounts of cookie dough yes and since we don't have that it's okay we're just gonna pretend but here's the deal I want to be real with you in this talk and I am so glad that focus gave me four and a half hours so cover everything that I would like to cover but because so I'm gonna do this in 30 minutes and it's it's gonna we're gonna go there yes but if you don't know me you know that I like to be real and sometimes what you see is not always real so I put together what I call the Swofford family highlight film so I basically just took a minute of the worst pictures that I could find on my phone so that you know that I mean I want to be real this is me no makeup at McDonald's yep this is a true shot of my triple chin this is a still shot of my triple chin I just look constipated in this picture I don't know what's going on this is fantastic yes Kate for the win on this family picture right yeah we're always just a mess don't ask we don't know it's just kind of a messy lots that's Christmas card worthy absolutely yeah I miss my shower cap is his favorite hat lots of up the nose shots in my house yes and this is really fun he doesn't understand that you don't die every time it's so good it's so good and this isn't me but I wish it was because let's just be honest right like that's how it's done so I just I just want you to like look at me and see me and see like I'm here to be real and I want you to know that it's messy out there Amen like it's messy and so I made a slide we could go into like a million things on it like why but I broke it down to three and this is where I think women and we as women struggle and like my slide actually says the struggle is real because it is um how do we title this this struggle is real all right these are the three things that I think I mean hi we're all bunched train wrecks we know we struggle with a lot right but like competition control and confusion those are the three that I mean I don't know these are just three that I think really mess with us competition right I have to also be honest with you and tell you that I have a deep love for one Joanna games Jojo where the girls from Baylor where's Baylor you might just find me on your couch someday don't be alarmed right I'm just coming to Magnolia I've never been okay good so here's the deal I love me some Jojo gains but here's the deal sometimes about equal about a year ago I had to unfollow her and here's why I would put my phone down after watching you looking through Instagram and stuff and I put my phone down then I would look around my house and I would think to myself I think I just need to burn it down and start over right like what was I thinking right like what the heck I spent like HomeGoods like 30 bucks that was not the best decision and now I'm stuck with this right like I look around my house and I just would be like it's just not good enough and in my heart I would feel what I eventually discovered was I felt ungrateful I felt ungrateful for what was around me and in that moment I stopped I thought to myself if I feel this way a 35 year old married woman with five kids looking around my house at knickknacks how did the women you sitting in these beautiful comfy blue chairs God those people how do you sit on your phone and not compare and compete and struggle with all the insecurities that you do as you try to navigate dating and am i enough and what am I supposed to be doing what the heck with my life like looking around right I stand on this stage because I am here to tell you that I'm proud of you for the fight that you're putting up I am proud of you because I don't know how that fight would have went down for me I didn't have a phone in high school not because my mom didn't let me it's because it didn't exist because I old right like I come to you to say like I'm here to fight for you and part of this battle is being aware of how sometimes those screens can mess with us and what it leads to is this control right do you guys have this prop I'm a first born only girl perfectionistic people pleaser type a hi welcome therapy later right okay so like I have control right like we as women we like take our plans and we take what we think is gonna make us happy and we take it to our chest and we white-knuckle like fists around it right and we like hold it to our chest cuz we know what's gonna make us happy and then when people are trying to come by and look at it or change it we just we just growl embark right back off right like right what sounded good in heels right okay so here's the deal you I know you have a plan for your life and I know it's really close to your heart and I know that control is a thing amen and then confusion if I took a mic around got very close to your face and if I walked around to all of you in this room 10,000 women and I asked you what does it mean to be a woman in the 21st century I would probably get 10,000 different answers what are you supposed to be doing with your life right now what does it look like amen what are how do you know pursue relationships like it's just so messy and it's confusing and so we know what messes with us but at the same time I think it's fair to say that we're hurting amen there are two things I see when I get to go out and hang out I see hurt and I see hunger when I was out one time I had to retreat like five hundred people and they asked if I would do like a Q&A where they could like submit slips of paper questions right I was like yeah that's great right in the moment the Holy Spirit was like this is good I asked them I said could you just write down one thing at the bottom of that slip of paper that you're struggling with right now because like I just wanted like actually like let's just go let's just go with what's actually people are actually struggling with amen so at the end of the talk I did the Q&A with everyone it was really wonderful and this girl comes with me with a ziploc bag full of these little pieces of paper she was like did you want these and I was like yes and I went back to my hotel room and I dumped the bag on my bed and I sat on that bed and they all fell around me and I'll be really honest with you i sat on that bed and I read through them and I cried for a good hour cuz it was so heavy you guys and I started putting them together and I put it on a slide and I brought him with me this is what some of them were insecurities fears worries about the future loneliness communication struggles past regrets worries about the world financial struggles depression anxiety addictions family members with addictions sexual abuse body image struggles eating disorders cutting suicidal thoughts struggle with pornography significant others struggle with pornography sexual sin significant other is distant from God in the church family is distant from God in the church confusion about gender and sexuality same-sex attraction wounds from the past forgiving someone forgiving yourself lack of self-worth and confidence self-hatred self-hatred self-hatred self-hatred lack of trust and God raise your hand if you struggle with one of the things on that list just one now I want you to keep your hand up and I want you to look around the room right now and I want you to look into the face of the women next to you and say you're not alone Amen Kristalina ever has an amazing new book out on healing you heard Leah talk about it you heard Lisa talk about it you heard sister Miriam talk about it every single woman on this stage will stand up here and tell you that you are not alone those that list is not even all of Amen like we come to you to tell you that you are not alone but it's so easy to get caught up in our head Amen and relationships are where it gets really messy because there's this thing called use in men and women use each other all the time and we don't always call it out we're not always aware of it men will use women to get what they want and women will use men to get what they want fill in the blanks right men will emotionally manipulate women get them where they're most vulnerable to get what they want which is sex right and women will use sex or their sex appeal or what they know they have to offer what they can throw out there to feel loved or to feel wanted or to feel desired or to be totally honest to feel anything at all because they are so tired of feeling empty and alone and men use women emotionally and physically and women use men and women come to each other and hurt each other and we use each other we typically don't call it use right we're not wired as human beings you use each other it's not how we're made and yet it happens all the time the question is do we see it I want you to close your eyes for a quick minute and I just want you to think about a time in your life where you were used either emotionally or physically or maybe even both and you knew it or maybe think about a time in your life where you use someone else either emotionally or physically or maybe even both and you knew it or maybe think about a time where you watched your best friend or your sibling or someone you love be used either emotionally or physically or maybe even both and you knew it or maybe you watched someone that you love used someone else and you didn't know what to do you didn't know how to help okay you can open your eyes everybody take a deep breath in let it out right those are four of the heaviest questions that I could ask you or that you could ask me because there's not a single person in this room that hasn't been used in some way or felt the effects of the cycle of use in some way and I want you to hear from the depths of my heart but I'm sorry I'm sorry for the times that you haven't been loved the way that you deserve to be loved by the men in your life maybe it was your father maybe it was your brother maybe it was your boyfriend maybe it was an ex whatever it is I just come before you my heart just aches for you and I'm sorry for the times that you've been hurt because I know those four questions are really heavy and the only way that we're ever gonna call out use is to be real about it and be aware of it amen I want to teach you two sentences that I want you to put in your back pocket I want you to pull them out and use them whenever you need to okay you ready repeat after me I will not use you and I will not let you use me boom you don't have to say boom but yeah right like can you think of any more two more powerful sentences one more time I will not use you and I will not let you use me promise me you'll use those two sentences whenever you need them we all have a plan right we all know what we think is gonna make us happy we all know that there's this like magic formula where it's like if I just get this right and then I do this and I accomplish that and I lose ten pounds I am going to be so happy right and there's this formula and it seems like there's always in this formula is this finding the one he's always part of that formula right and I come to you and say like I'm because I don't have four hours and I get thirty minutes I prayed about with like what would happen if I were able to go to with you one-on-one you better believe I would go to coffee with every single one of you but if I had my quick thirty minutes what would I say to you and I when I wrote my book I wrote over 60 pages on how to go from hey des I do because I do think it's important yeah do you know what I think is more important is if we were one-on-one I would take my coffee cup and I would set it aside and I would lean across the table and I would grab your hand and I would look you in the eye and I would say this to you Jesus desires to love you like no human can he has given man and woman to each other to be a sign of his love but that love doesn't replace our need for his love in the same way no man can ever be your Savior and trying to make someone your Savior can actually ruin that relationship it's not possible no one is capable of being your everything or being your God it's too heavy it's a burden and that man will break under the weight and pressure and when he inevitably falls short you will be disappointed it can be easy to seek to fulfill our desires with anything other than God every decision you made in the past whether it turned out well or in the end was a complete disaster was made because you believed that that decision would truly make you happy and fulfill a desire you longed for when you made that decision it may have seemed like the right thing to do at the time as if it would ultimately fulfill you but whether those decisions led to the pain of an unbearable breakup being rejected overlooked abused used or facing the reality that you have used or hurt someone else deep down those choices were really a search for God though you may not have recognized it at the time we all desire infinite happiness a desire that drives all of our decisions and this desire can only be found and got himself if I had five minutes with you that's what I would want you to know you guys every single relationship is fed every relationship in your life is fed on the foundation of one the greatest gift soif ever gave me as a woman was the day that he sat me down when we were engaged and he looked me in the eye and he said I love you and I'm going to fail you because I am not perfect but I'm gonna point use the one that is perfect and I am always gonna point you tweet to you and show you the one that is your everything and I don't want to run out each other I want to run to him and I want to run with you but I can't be your everything it was the greatest gift he ever gave me because that was the day that I realized that that is built in us somewhere amen and I come to you and I say that to you because nothing makes sense with relationships dating or anything else if we don't get this one right and I know you know all of this I know you know all of this but I put it on the slide because here's video we as women were visual people right like you have to see it and that Sarah swafford me in my life in my life in the life of my husband in the life of my kids in the life of my friends and the life of you I have one desire and that desire is to clear everything out of the way to massage your heart to the Eucharist through the power of the confessional so that you can drop everything off and sit in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and let God the Father gaze upon you and convict you and your true identity and worth as a beloved daughter of God that is not that is my only goal in life every day of my life that's my goal and that's what I want for you because you will never find your worth in the face of a human being you will never be convicted in your worth in any other gays in the gaze of our Lord I'm not gonna set you up to fail in your relationships I'm gonna set you up to thrive and when you go and sit in the sacred heart and ask him Who am I he is gonna look at you and he's gonna say you are mine you are my beloved daughter and you return to this gaze over and over and over again when you get lost or confused or you fight for control you return to this gaze because you're my beloved daughter this is what like you or my beloved daughter so loved I loved the suspense so loved that God the Father created you out of love completely unique and unrepeatable so loved that God the Father gave His only begotten Son to suffer and die on a cross to save you from sin and death so loved that God the Father raised Christ from the dead so that you might have eternal life with him forever and so loved that God the Father promised never to abandon you and proved it by sending the Holy Spirit to always be with you for you are never alone do you believe that this slide right here promise to never abandon you and to prove it by sending his Holy Spirit to always be with you so you will never be alone the fear of being alone is really men we're really hard on ourselves this is one of my favorite quotes I'm obsessed with this man don't be shocked we are not the some of our weaknesses and failures we are the some of the father's love for us if you forget your way if you forget what you're supposed to be doing in your life you just remember that you have surrendered your life and you have handed over control to the one who sees you as the sum of his love we see our weaknesses and failures first amen it's not what he sees when you battle that desire to control and to compete and when you're confused you surrender to him you say take everything Jesus I trust in you amen and if you get real lost you just pull up this picture and she show you how it's done yes she's gorgeous this is our lady nice to meet you look at her face do you think Mary had a plan for her life do you think Mary fought control do you think Mary ever sat and thought what the heck Lord I think she probably thought it a lot right like the way y'all signai duration you're like what the heck Lord right like I think about her on the cross a lot at the cross a lot can you imagine watching your son die and not know what's going on it should be like what is going on I trust you I've surrendered my life to you when I was 14 but what is going on amen if you get lost look to our lady she will show you how to surrender Amen I love this these are hurt like I don't you guys the the Marian virtues right have you guys seen these cheer yeah they're my girls we're my Fiat 90 girls in the house right yes charity humility prayer obedience wisdom purity faith patience I got to get me some of that yeah she is the example she is your model that's kind of hard though right it's not always easy do you guys ever feel like you know exactly what you don't know don't want you know exactly what's hurt you you're like yes girl I am with you I'm here but what the heck am I supposed to be doing right now right like how do I practically live this out I have a lot of women that come up to me and they're like Sarah like I love you I love your talk I really don't have a friend and I don't have a front bonus I don't have a friend that loves Jesus okay so hi help me out right you need your strive tribe right I have some women we got together and we put together the virtues our Marian virtues right broken down for us to look at it like modern day this is what it looks like you guys ready how do we like break this down and live it out these are some ideas these are some virtues striving to be gentle and kind graceland sincere patient and flexible doesn't gossip isn't rude tries to eliminate drama not create it poison modest open to the needs of others nurturing and welcoming joyful and fun striving to stand up for what is right and seeks the truth has courage and is not afraid to confront and help someone is genuinely excited for another not jealous or vain speaks with conviction is responsible prudent humble and honest secure sensitive to the needs of others her relationship with God comes first in her life she puts others first before herself she strives for excellence in all things and chastity and sobriety and tries her hardest in academics her career she's not led solely by her emotions and passions she maintains balance and order in her life she lives a life of charity and service she's forgiving trustworthy loyal and pure okay everybody in the house take a deep breath in let it out right repeat after me striving striving not perfect because perfect doesn't exist striving deep breath in I just over well over whelmed the entire room right everyone was like mmm great not that I'm not that I'm not that I messed that up at breakfast awesome right I just need a nap and a box of Oreos if you got them right right striving not perfect as perfect doesn't exist Amen this is what I want you I this is a slide that's very dear to my heart surrender and strive written on my heart you guys understand right like if you just strive it's like no you don't just check a little boxes like I just I don't want you just be like a good person like a good little girl scout for Jesus like this isn't like check boxes and get a boyfriend that's not this talk right like striving is this deep place of love for God and for your person next to you amen but it comes from your surrender it comes from returning to the gaze over and over again bringing everything into that confessional and dropping it off and saying I need to Remember Who I am right now every hour all the time in that striving for virtue flows from that deep place in my heart where I've given Jesus everything and I've asked him to take care of everything and now I'm just living in a surrendering strive mode amen and I told you guys you need your strive tribe amen is it hard to be a woman it's not just me good good all 10,000 of us awesome good women hate each other it's a problem right will you guys do me a favor will you join me in this mission where we look at each other as women and we say I promise not to make your life harder because I know how hard your life is amen can we look at each other and say I want to be there for you the three hardest things but the three most critical components of a relationship of a friendship are ready for this if you're writing it down it's it's brutal ready hate your life availability vulnerability and accountability availability vulnerability and accountability gross right how many of you are like no thanks I think I'll pass right availability to put your phone down and be like I'm right here the greatest gift you can give someone I think right now is the gift of your eyeballs Amen to look at someone and say hi hot mess calm welcome we're all here right like bring it in bring it close bring oreos right like we know to be available but it doesn't stop there it starts with to be vulnerable it's not what are you struck it's not like do you struggle it's what are you struggling with babe right take a virtue here we go and then accountability I'm gonna be really honest with you one of my favorite stories on this is from the men at 3:30 I get to give this talk to the men and I am pumped here's the deal I had some guys come to me a couple years ago and they were like hey we were talk the other night there was six of them and they got together and they shared with each other after my talk they were all struggling with some form of sexual sin whether it was pornography or masturbation or sleeping with their girlfriend or whatever something heavy they all shared that with each other and they decided as a group that they would start a text chain and if any one of the six guys fell he would put out a text at that moment and all the other five guys would fast for 24 hours nobody would eat and they would pray for each other and that is how they the six of them grew in this availability vulnerability and accountability and I have to be really honest with you when they told me about it not a single one of them could do it without crying because those guys tell me what tell me what you think of how close those guys are who were their best men in their wedding who were the men in their lives that they went to when other stuff went down what do you think the wives of those guys think about those other guys and the one priest is amazing look at my look at my face look at my look at my face I don't know what that looks like for you as women we all struggle the struggle is real be kind for everyone is fighting a hard battle it's just not might not be your battle I didn't matter it everyone is straight its struggling amen I hold up those men is just an idea for how to make this look but I want you to take that to your strive tribe and I want you to take this and say you are not alone the devil loves to twist divide and isolate he twists the truth about who you are about your relationships he I mean the game is all played upstairs Amen he twists the truth to divide you out to isolate you so he can pick you off he's really good at it is he really good at isolating people especially through division among women oh heck yeah don't let him do it cut him off at the pass Amen like know how to play his game no no no no back up right I tell the devil to back up a lot right so how do we deal with the men's I told you we would get to this whole man thing right gosh I wasn't so much I'm glad they're not here I kind of wish they were but you know what I mean yeah it's good when I start when I when this all started to come together for me we just gave up using like 17 minutes ago right so like when you're like when you start seeing this right and you start looking across and you see men I want you to see something different when you walk out of this room and you see them as they come back I want you to look at the men and I want you to see the men as your brothers in Christ here's why they are fighting a hard battle that we will never understand but we respect amen we may created equal in dignity yes a little different yes in Genesis it says that God made Eve to be the helpmate of Adam like suave said I I don't want to run at I don't want to run at you I want to run to him and I would run beside you because you're my helpmate run with me when you look at the men I want you to look across I want you to see your brothers in Christ who are fighting a hard battle no man can be your Savior you will always be disappointed you don't need them to be your Saviour you already have one amen let men be men and let gobby God keep him number one and let the men run beside you as your help mates - amen here's how dating can go this is again like in a minute let's do it right on the wedding day of a if you're called a marriage and you're dating a guy right now or you might date this guy in the future right think cool guy right like obviously amazing man that you're dating okay you see him on his wedding day he's standing on the altar right charcoal tux you'd you picked it out and there's cake okay like see the guy right okay and you're looking at this guy who you love who's your brother in Christ and like me he's a good dude right you dated him are you you're dating him now are you might date with future you see this dude you're like he's a good dude and you're looking and he's marrying your best girlfriend hold up right so let's all put ourselves there you're the guy you're dating or the guy you could date in the future and the girl is your best girlfriend big white dress can you go up to that couple and can she pull you and see like one of those beautiful hugs where you can barely cut the trip the dress is so big but you're you got it right like can she pull you and this like massive hug and can she pull away from you and can she look you in the eye and say thank you so much for the time that you spent with my husband you made him a more virtuous man you brought him closer to our Lord you didn't take anything away from me you were there for me when I couldn't be there and I think you for the time you spent with him I don't have a mic that I can drop cuz it's on my face but yeah look at my face every guy in your life is a beloved son of God he's called to the priesthood or to a beautiful marriage or to give his life to the Lord in some beautiful way you are his helpmate you are the one to be there to cheer him on to help him grow in virtue to never be an obstacle just to love him in the feminine beautiful way that only you can amen will you help me love them in well will you help me build them up the world wants to tear them down let's not help the world amen my last slide that I want to share with you guys is this 100 bodies I know here's the deal this is our rally cry this is my rally cry right now I was in Rome last spring and we went to the Church of cool bodies it is a church that is built over a place where st. Peter it's really fun he was trying to build up the church in Rome and it got hecka hard and he was like peace right he's like I am done I am over this and I'm out and he left Rome he's like forget it I'm done and he's leaving Rome packed his bags walking on her own he's walking along and all of a sudden Christ the risen Christ appears to him on the road and Peter looks at Jesus and says Quo Vadis which means where are you going and the Lord looked at st. Peter and he said I'm going back to Rome to be crucified again and walked past him and that was the moment where st. Peter was asked the question to himself Peter where are you going Quo Vadis and he turned around and he went back to Rome with our Lord and he established the church and he loved hard and he carried that cross and he suffered and he loved well and he surrendered and he strived and he built the church and he died a martyr out of love for our Lord completely surrendered in the gaze I come to you in this moment to ask you coatis ladies where are you going it's not what do you do in this situation or that situation what do i do right now it's who do you want to be and where are you going and that will change the way you answer all of those questions they meant cove at ease with your strive tribe you may get in it you may get in a moment right where someone's about to do something create cry cry and you go cool bodies yo yo yo yo cool bodies right like I think this is a bad idea this is our code word bodies right like flashing signs hmm have you ever had a friend like about to go do something you're like oh where are you going hey like come back Quo Vadis amen turn to your girls turn to the girls that you want to be with and say cool bodies yeah I want to read something to you I'm gonna I want to pray over you can I pray over you are you into that is that a thing yes okay I want to read to you from it's two paragraphs out of this book that changed my life change the way I pray um it's by he's like a brother to soif in me I love him so much he's one of my best friends names father John Byrne's and he's the Godfather of this baby and um you met the godmother of this baby her name is sister Miriam James do you know her [Applause] do I know how to pick them or do I know how to pick them right they prayed over you backstage and I was like I am just gonna go out there and slowly and simply unpack the talk that rocked everyone crushed their souls last night and we're gonna put ourselves back together yes she's amazing her talk last night I think was one of the best times I've ever heard in my life and I think that it was the top that you needed to have this day amen the Lord is taking you somewhere ladies if you're gonna go there yes [Applause] the Lord wants this the Lord wants this for you this day so close your eyes and let me read father John tell Johnny's words over you and let it wash over you imagine God as a sculptor each person is a unique unfinished work of art if we admit this image inevitably questions arise about what it would take to complete and beautify the work we can see how easily we want to impose our own ideas on the process of completion frequently we set about in a frantic haste to embellish to hastened toward finality to add our own finishing touches and to adorn ourselves as we see best we want to be attractive to behold we want to stand out from the crowd to attract interests and notice of others we convince ourselves that this will somehow make us happy we seek jewels and adornments but we seek them not for the sake of beauty we want to have and to have more to let others know we have more so that rather than are wishing we have better lives they can look at us and wish their lives for better when we slip into this mode we missed the fundamentals of much greater importance is it to see the foundation the sculpture itself and to see it as unfinished in prayer we must work to recognize that a loving master sculptor has crafted each human person uniquely by design no two works of this sculptor ever the same rather than chasing after embellishments a better starting point lies in two related questions how can I best adorn the face of creation and how can I best reflect the genius of the sculptor and thereby shine the splendor of God into the hearts of all those who come into my life perhaps not the first questions that come to mind but they bring us into harmony with the mind of the Almighty I want you guys to open your hands just like this just open your hands up for me I asked father Johnny to come out and pray over us if that's okay with you as a man as a priest as a father as a brother as a friend I want you to open your hands and I want you one of the things that he taught me was he said Sara you can't the Lord wants you to live with open hands because he can't put new Beauty into clenched fists amen live your life with open hands I asked father to be here because I said one of the things that I see so much is we need healing amen we need to bring our wounds and we need to be able to forgive and we need to be able to go to the Lord in that gaze with free hearts through the power of the confessional through the power of prayer tonight in adoration yes I want that for you so desperately that's gonna take some work amen we got to go back to Rome and we got to go and we got a struggle we got to suffer and we know it's not gonna be easy but our Lord is with us and our brothers in Christ are with us amen remember I told you that in Genesis it says that she's the helpmate right it's been said that the reason why our Lord created right why did why did God create Eve out of the rib of Adam why not the foot or the hand or something like some other body part why the rib it's been said that it's because God that's where God always wanted women from the beginning by the side of the man under his arm and close to her heart to his heart amen it was exactly right that is exactly right I Love You Father Jones Hey I want I want you guys to have this relationship the father's in your life the brothers in your life the men in your life the brothers in Christ and J ki I want you to see them as the helpmate you're the helpmate run with them not at them to the Lord together amen but I want him to be here to stand in the place of all those men that have hurt you I want him to stand in the place and pray healing over you for you and for the girl next to you amen will you do me a favor will you put your hand on the shoulder of the woman next to you will you have one hand open and one hand on the shoulder of the woman next to you hmm pick a side any side Jesus can work with it all take a deep breath I want you to bring everything to him right now and I want you to let the Lord start something in your heart a place of healing a place of surrender a place of growth I want you to offer that to him right now I know you're open I know you're ready for this I know you're ready for this day and let father's words come over you as the Holy Spirit descends upon this room in a new and fresh way in a powerful way ladies it is real Healing is real let him into your life be in that gaze return to it be in it now consider for just a moment the gaze of the father over all of creation and as the father gazes on all of creation know that he sees you that you stand out to the Lord and as he looks upon you he looks upon you with delight because he sees in your heart something that he has never made before and he will never make again let the gaze of the father wash over you for just a moment and as you rest in God's gaze open your heart to acknowledge that this heart that has never been made before and will never be made again this unrepeatable irreplaceable heart that is yours is in pain is not perfect acknowledge before the Lord for just a moment that you have asked questions about your worth about your value about your goodness and about your beauty unacknowledged that is you've had these questions on your heart many times you have looked around for answers and acknowledged in a particular way that as you wonder if you're worthy if you're lovable if you are enough if you are beautiful with those questions you have looked into the eyes of others and in particular you've looked into the eyes of men hoping to find an answer and you found pain you've been hurt betrayed and broken and so in this prayer come back to the foundation know the father in this moment very gently takes your chin and lifts it back to his gaze and as the father looks into your eyes and he holds your face he's seize the deep places where there is pain or the questions still linger and were the broken answers you sought in the world cause such agony on your heart and the father says to you I never wanted that for you and I want to take that from you now and so receiving the gaze of the Father now hear his word to you which is absolute truth hear the Lord say to you my beautiful one my beloved daughter you are beautiful to me I love the way that I made you hear the Lord say to you in truth that he's never made anything like this before that he's so proud of your heart and he will never make another heart like this and so hear him say to you in all of those questions yes yes my dear beloved one you are beautiful to me you are lovely to me you are delightful and I long for your heart and so please come back to me the Lord says to you in this moment give the Lord permission right now to draw you back to himself give him permission in this moment to speak the deep truth that you are beautiful you are lovely you are delightful you are worthy you are enough you are beloved hear these words from the Lord because they are his he uses my mouth as his priests to speak deep truth but in this truth to reclaim you to cast out all the darkness and to reestablish you in the fullness of life and light and love open your heart dear sisters and hear the truth of the Father in this moment as he says to you I love you and may Almighty God bless you the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit father and I love you and we fighting for you we want to meet you guys my makeup looks really good thanks a lot of fun um we're gonna be together at all afternoon and smart afternoon as well and where I'm at the worth of Benedict in booth 192 we want to pray with you we want to love you we want to just tell you that you're amazing if you don't hear it enough amen but just to know that we're fighting for you and we love you and we are so proud of you Quo Vadis yes I love you guys we're praying for you [Applause]

Channel: FOCUS Catholic

Views: 35,689

Rating: 4.9444447 out of 5

Keywords: catholic, catholic conference, catholic talk, sarah swafford, catholic speaker, women's session, college catholic conference, seek 2019, SEEK, focus talk

Id: JyjLVo4B01o

Length: 50min 21sec (3021 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 07 2019