Sarah Swafford - "Women's Session" - 2018 Steubenville Rochester

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hey hey how's it going it's my girls okay so here's the deal I love women's session but my preferred way to do this is in my kitchen with cookie dough amen so since we don't have cookie dough I'm improvising and what I want to improvise with is right here I call them the three P's peanut butter Eminem's interests yeah and I need five Polynesian princesses to come on up here where you at okay you right here right here with the yep you saw my finger get you right here oh thanks for the lights girl with the headband absolutely and girl with the pink scrunchie absolutely and the girl in the very back with the blue sweater get on up here I don't know how to untangle these because I am ridiculous but I need you to put that on and then I need all the rest of you who I love so much I'm just gonna start throwing peanut butter M&Ms at you and I need you to pass them out how do you feel about that good [Applause] did I pick five yeah okay do I have five where's it my oh my gosh okay hi hi hi are we eating these yeah inhaling inhaling is the word right pass them out okay I want to get to know all of you this weekend so we're gonna start with these five what's your name Lindsey way from I'm from st. Michael Minnesota is there anyone where my girls at I love it okay and you are I'm sorry I'm for bad heart Dakota North Dakota I love North Dakota and I love your hair holy buckets and I love your hair and you dressed for this occasion thank you okay what's your name I'm Abby and where you from Hopkins Hopkins Minnesota I love that girl there I know her y'all seen else no okay sorry okay what's your name Sydney Sydney and where you from Thief River Falls Minnesota [Music] how did I pick all the girls beautiful your hair is the shiniest most beautiful here I've ever seen in my life look at this toran what do you use she's like shampoo okay good hi hi how are you good I'm Tara Tyra like banks Tyra where you from I'm from Lake andis minister I'm from France but I forgot where him from you actually look German like me though actually this is not my hair you do get a lot where's your girls at where we we love you come sit with us right okay so let's get this party started right I need you to stand up cuz we don't dance sitting down that's doesn't work right yes give it up for my Polynesian princesses these girls are beautiful you killed it Tyra she goes I totally felt that song I was like yeah me too okay thank you for coming up and being Polynesian princesses no it's yours to keep yeah absolutely looks so good on you give it up okay and now hug hug the person next you inside down [Applause] I got so into that I'm out of shape and kind of breathing hard sorry I felt that song Tyra - it's good we're together okay sorry that was just really fun right Polynesian princesses and peanut M&Ms anybody eat any of them yeah good but kind of expensive I would have bought them for all of you but I was like dang Sam's Club you're kind of expensive um oh you're welcome okay so here's the deal I love this talk I love being with you you guys ready for this yeah I'm praying for you for a long time I've been praying about where we should go with this and so I think with Pinterest I'm a lover of Pinterest yeah you guys ever seen the little mean that says like follow your heart I'm like that might be the worst advice of all time right Pinschers is so great though you like fine quotes and whatever and you're like I don't currently have a tattoo but if I have if I would want to tattoo that right here right because it's like that's cash money I want that one so like you know I'm pinchers when you see like quotes like beautiful right I love the book it's called the privilege of being a woman it's like yes right like you look at Pinterest and you're like yes you call this like energy from it right you're like I'm going to take over the world in powder pink heels right aren't these cute yeah do you know what happened there I own like four pairs of shoes this is one of them but they're not comfortable if you watch very closely they like take them out of my purse when I get on stage and on a stage and then I wear flip-flops the rest the time so just watch me closely I love you that's why I wear heels because I want you to know that you're beautiful and being feminine is beautiful and women are amazing but that's not what we always think right and that's not what we always hear you might hear it from me you might hear it from your friends or whatever but you don't hear it in your head very often in your own mind you don't think the things that I just said you think things like this I'm not enough I will never be enough if only I had if only I could get their attention if only they could see me then I'd no one will ever love me and accept me especially now that I've she's got everything she wants all she has to do is snap her fingers and it's so easy for them they don't have to deal with these are thoughts from my head these are things that I've struggled with my whole life and I've done enough hanging out with women to know that you struggle with it too amen fill in the blanks right the reason why this is hard being a woman is like you know hi we don't have six hours right that would be it would take me six hours right the kind of boil it down to like three that I think I'm gonna go after you guys up for that these are the three control confusion and competition yeah this is how I'm gonna answer it with truth trust and a tribe game on competition if you have straight hair you want curly hair if you have curly hair you want straight hair if you're tall you want to be short if you're short you want to be tall if you have big boobs you want smaller ones if you're smaller ones you want bigger ones if you have a big butt you want a small but if you have small bet you want a bigger one and they have these like weird things you can put on your button if you have you want what you don't have amen how many times have you watched a girl with six straight hair it's been like hours curling her hair next to the girl who has curly beautiful hair straightening it nod right up and down if you're following me right it is so hard as a woman to not compare and compete when someone has something you want it's so hard to look at that person and say I'm happy for her I want that for her the instant thought is it's like like jealousy is I want what she has envy is I want what she has and I don't want her to have it one more time Envy is I want what she has and I don't want her to have it and that's where we get ourselves into trouble in I'm anti drama I think you if you know me you know I don't like drama so much hate and drama comes from looking around and thinking I'm not enough I want what she has I don't want her to have it welcome to junior high praise God were done with that amen I know it's hard to not compete with other women but I think it's doubly hard because you guys live in a society like me where we open our phones and we scroll and we see what we think we need to be celebrities a lot of Instagram you know it's unbelievable how many images we see and as women because we look at an image in size ourselves up social media is going to wreak havoc on your soul amen I want to show you a video that really changed the way I play the especially the way I change way I look at celebrities and the way I look at social media the way I look at the like print ads and different commercials okay you guys ready for this it's gonna blow your mind why would we ever try to compete with that amen does that not blow your mind could I have some feedback on that what do you think of that video terrifying right the music and it's really good I just wanted you to see what she looked like before again because it moves really fast Amen that that video moves really fast but when they like a long when they elongate her neck and blow up her eyes I'm always like oh my gosh I can't do that Sephora does not have that but I'm aware of if they did I couldn't afford it right here's the deal I love that video because I think what it does is it puts this competition with social media and Instagram into our hands and we set it on the ground and we go you're ridiculous I'm walking away from you because when you see pictures you guys these celebrities I don't I don't even want to know what Taylor Swift's little squad looks like that follows her around to make her look good right name I mean name the person right cardi be her little grew her little group right like I can't even imagine who does her fake eyes we cannot look at these women and go that's what I'm supposed to be because that's not what we're supposed to be that's altered digitally altered that is not real amen so when you see pictures and you're like feeling fat right you like do they shaved off half or bet half of her body they just like went right like let it go amen everyone go every ticket to birth then put that competition and feeling insecure about comparing with social media snapchat Instagram the whole thing just put it on the ground and walk away amen say I got you Sarah say we got this good let's do control anybody a control freak anybody struggle with perfectionism anyone struggle with wanting things to go their way anyone struggle with their plans going wrong anyone struggle with meeting a guy and saying yep that's the guy I want unfortunately he doesn't know my name do we have anybody else in here struggle with your friend who's dating the guy you want to date does anyone else in here struggle with the fact that you have your life completely peut planned out on Pinterest on a secret board the dress the invites everything is there he can just push play your ring is there it'll all be laid out he's in good shape right okay so how many of you have a plan for your life and then you take that plan and you hold it in your hands until your knuckles are white and you put it close to your heart and you're like you start growling like a dog at anyone that comes close to it right back off right mm-hmm I'm talking about myself you guys back off right we struggle with control right as women we have our plans we have our ideas we know what we want we know what we want and we don't want anyone to mess with that and we don't want anyone to change it and we don't any want to like tell us it's not gonna happen we don't any yep control is a real thing I think all of us struggle with it in one way or another but when your knuckles get white and you hold it so close to your chest that even I see it right now if I'm looking forward No so as I look forward I can't even see my plans and if I look down I can't see what's ahead of me that's the problem right so control and then the last one is I like to put them up here just so you can see it the last one is confusion if I went around this room and put the mic in front of every single girl and said what does it mean to be a 21st century woman what would you say it's like a beauty pageant right hi contestant 45 from North Dakota what what does it mean to be a woman in the 21st century you'd be like I just threw up in my mouth I don't know right like I don't know I I have no idea right do you have a definition for that what are we supposed to be doing right do you guys ever struggle with this I struggled with this a lot in high school was like I know everything I don't want and everything I'm not supposed to do and everything I supposed to say no to but I have no idea what I'm actually supposed to be saying yes to and I have no idea who I'm actually supposed to be so these are the three that I think are hard oh sorry that's more than three that controller and I weren't we're gonna we're gonna become friends before this is all over I get emails and Instagram messages from all over the world to the point where some of them are in foreign languages and I have to get on Google and translate them to be able to answer them it's the power of YouTube amen I have a love/hate with all social media and Internet I love you I hate you I love you I have a group of women in Croatia that I Skype with they have nothing and Croatia they don't have anything and I i Skype with them and they're translating my book in Croatian right now and just like how is that even possible right like the power of the Internet and at the same time I hate it and I wish it would die and I could burn it right so when I receive emails from all over the world and I get these Instagram messages it helps me to get a feel for like where everyone's at and I had I got a letter a couple months ago from a girl and I have been we've been chatting and we've been working together and I asked her I said I'm planning this woman's talk could I read your first letter that you sent me and she said yeah absolutely so I'm gonna read it to you she said dear Sarah I've been struggling to put into words everything that I'm feeling right now my life has been spinning out of control and I don't really know where to turn I was sexually abused in junior high and that set me on a path of destruction that included getting drunk and high throughout most of high school hooking up and questioning everything about myself especially my worth along with the party a life along with the life of partying also came pornography and all kinds of sexual sin my friends used to tell me that I would make a great lesbian for years I struggled with why they would say that and eventually I just started believing them and walked down that road because of the abuse in my past and my broken relationship with my own father I don't trust men but I guess I don't really trust women either I don't know what I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to do it is hard for me to feel loved I think what I feel most of all is alone I know that is a lot to hear but I really liked your talk and I wanted to share this with you thank you for listening I've started to pray again please pray for me when I was doing women's talk about a year ago I always say I don't want to talk about anything you're not struggling with let's just go straight for the heart right straight at the heart what were struggling with and I had this group of 500 women and past that little pieces of paper and I said write down what you're struggling with and I will go after that and I remember going back to my hotel room after the event and I was on the bed and I laid all of these little pieces of paper out and I started reading through them nicer I just started crying I started I just cried and I compiled them all onto one slide and this is what it looks like 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 struggle with pornography significant others struggle with pornography sexual sin significant other is distant from God and the church family is distant from God in the church confusing a confusion about my gender and sexuality same-sex attraction wounds from the past forgiving someone forgiving yourself self-hatred lack of self-worth lack of confidence lack of trust in God everyone take a deep breath in let it out raise your hand if you struggle with one thing on this list I need you to look around the room now I need you to tell every single person around you you're not alone say it you're not alone you're not alone you're not alone do you guys ever feel like you're alone or do you feel like you could relate with some of the 500 women that were in that room that night amen you are not alone that's just such a heavy slide it breaks my heart it breaks my heart there's two things to me it breaks my heart and it freakin fires me up amen because I will not let a single person in this room ever feel alone the devil loves to twist to divide and to isolate watch for the secrets and the lies the devil loves to twist divide and isolate that's what he wants to do what does he do he twists the truth about who you are he twists the truth about who God is he puts us into knots to divide us out he wants to divide you from the women in your life he wants to divide you from your family he wants to divide you from the men and he wants to divide you from God why so he can isolate you and pick you off nod your head up and down if that makes sense to you because you feel that and you know that I need you to know his voice and I need you to know the voice of God the Father father Johnny talked about this morning I freaking love that guy amen don't be shocked right don't be shocked when we think about who we are and you hear in your in your heart you hear these voices that are like you're unworthy you're not enough you're not loved you're ugly you're fat you're not as pretty as her he's not gonna choose you no one knows you no one cares about you does that sound like the voice of God the Father and if it's not the voice of God the Father then whose voice is it does that make sense I call it being the boss of my thoughts oh you guys I struggle with this hardcore hardcore my friend Christopher Anik says your your mind has a dangerous in the eborhood don't go in alone amen he said that to me when I was like that is so good and so true in my life right be the Bossier thoughts I'm gonna speak truth into your life right now okay you ready I want you to take this and put it somewhere super deep in your heart because the devil loves to isolate you and to divide you from him from God from men from other women in your life from your family and he loves to separate your heart and put it into little to chop it up and throw it around amen this is truth because we are wounded the truth is harder to see and even harder for us to feel and know deep within our heart God made us male and female equal in dignity but different we complement one another and are made for communion with one another so many of our wounds you guys come from the fact that the devil really really really wants to twist what men and women are here for each other for when you look at men in your life what do you see because this is what God created it for this is what God created the two of you for then the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a helper fit for him now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man had called every living creature that was its name the man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found to help her for him fit for him so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and oh hi I can't read and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man then he said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man let's look at the first line the Lord God said it's not good that the man should be alone I will make him a helper fit for him I think that's one of the most beautiful lines in scripture I'm gonna make him a helper fit for him is that what the world tells you that we're meant to be as men and women running towards God helping each other towards heaven no the world typically tells you either to compete with men to emasculate them to be better than them to do what they can do better right or to use them the cycle of use to get what you want to fill a hole in your heart because a lot of time men and women run to each other not towards the Lord but God made them helpers fit what does the devil want to do he wants to twist that into knots make you question everything about yourself and about what men are supposed to be and what women are supposed to be but how God created him to be is where we want to dwell on that truth right this is important this is this is a good slide put this deep in your heart our bodies and souls form a unity we are one thing we can't love our souls and hate our bodies or vice versa it takes great courage to accept ourselves as we are and seek to glorify God in our bodies the culture of self-hatred seeks to change the body at all costs make myself thinner change my nose even try to change my sexual identity let us seek to love ourselves as we are in our god-given identity and let's seek to become all that God has called us to be men and women equal but different complementary amen your god-given identity is what you're a beloved daughter of God period period you are a beloved daughter of God period and you know what God does not make mistakes you have one body for this one life that means something amen God does not make mistakes if you struggle here consider this just because you're a girl who for example loves sports doesn't mean that you're really a boy trapped in a girl's body don't overdo stereotypes our sexual identity is a biological god-given reality but there are many ways of authentically living this out I was talking about femininity one time and this girl came up to me afterwards and she goes I'm Sarah I really like to hunt and fish and I eat beef jerky is that okay and I was like I have a fantasy football team in Buffalo Wild Wings is my favorite restaurant is that okay last line one more time our sexual identity is a biological god-given reality but there are many ways of authentically living this out do you believe that do you guys know that you do you I'm like okay you do you is total relativism you do you is like not gonna work it's like follow your heart it's a bad idea but you do you with Jesus Christ as the king and Lord of your life striving for virtue yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah right you were beautiful you were meant to radiate the love of Christ your body and your soul or one you cannot hate your body and love yourself or hate yourself and love your body not right up and down if that that makes sense to you if God gave you this one body and he said I love you I've chosen this for you you rock this right if you handed it back and said it's trash I don't want it how high do you think he feels when you hear you say that think about what father Johnny said in his talk today the way he talks to you the way that the father wants to love you the way he sees you in your identity do you know his voice because if you hear the opposite you have to do what I do that is a lie that is not true you need to back up I'm gonna put you on the ground I'm gonna walk away from you and I'm gonna speak a truth from God the Father to replace the lie from the double and I'm gonna sit here as a beloved daughter of God in the gaze and be the boss of my thoughts amen you guys it's like it's like working out it's like an x-ray it's like exercising a muscle okay to be able to figure out how to beat this how to compete with you know that when you're trying to compete with the world you guys it is so exhausting amen do you guys ever go around and say like when someone says like how you doing you're like oh good good busy you know it's busy fine doing fine fine stands for freaked out and secured nervous and exhausted write that down fine Stan that freaked out insecure nervous and exhausted amen no one's fine we're all a hot mess let's just party together right I want to speak not only truth into your life but I want to talk about trust I love the suspense of this little clicker it doesn't like me oh oh yeah let's do this one you know my daughter's name is Kate right this is why be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire be who God meant you to be and you'll set the world on fire do you believe that will you promise me that you'll try and maybe we all go get this tattooed together on our forearm yeah my little Kate my beautiful gorgeous hilarious sometimes did see Kate right I speak this truth over her a lot I speak this truth over you right now don't shine so that others can see you shine so that through you others can see him you radiate the love of God you guys you witness that be who you recreated to be and you'll set the world on fire I don't know what Saint said it but some Saint who I is like my homegirl she said the Lord has lit me on fire and people come to watch me burn what will you guys burn with me will you burn with the love of God with me will you do that with me because here's the deal I want you to trust because this is our model is she not gorgeous if you want to know what femininity is let's go to her amen if you want to know what it means to trust let's go to her if you wouldn't know what it means to hand over control let's go to her if you want to know what it looks like to be a strong brave courageous beautiful confident woman let's go to her I had a girl come up to me one time after a talk she was like crying and I felt like gave her a big hug I'm like ok tell me is this good tears bad tears like what is this and she like looked at me and she goes until today Beyonce with my role model but you're my new Beyonce I was like hey do you know who my Beyonce is she's on the screen amen who do you look to who are your mentors who are the women in your life that speak truth to your heart go to them when I asked you earlier what does it look like to be a 21st century woman let's look to her amen last one you need a tribe a squad a posse a hashtag and a t-shirt that is what you need my friends you need a tribe amen is it hard to be a woman good I'm gonna make you take the Sarah Swofford pledge you ready everybody raise your right hand I promise you Sarah from this day forward I will not make life harder on another woman amen now look at the women around you and say I mean it I mean I mean I mean it I mean you're beautiful you're beautiful you're beautiful your hair is amazing and super shiny here we go you guys ready for this I need you to figure out okay so two things there's a huge difference between beauty and sex the pool beauty and sex appeal and there's a huge difference between a tribe and a clique does that make sense know the difference between beauty and sex appeal save your sex appeal if your husband he'll be very excited here's the deal did that make sense more tattoos people we're ready right I want you to look at the women in your life and create these tribes because you need to speak truth to one another but it is not a clique it is called inviting other women in raise your hand if you've ever been alone good are you with me to end aloneness Aloni alumnus of all the alone isolated miss miss miss the world yeah join me in these tribes amen these squads ease again get a hashtag and a t-shirt I'm okay with that right so some the girls in my life are really fun I call my minions I've been addicted and they wanted to make a t-shirt so they made this t-shirt it says be you too full Amen bee-utiful you guys need constant reminders I don't know if you guys text each other but if you text each other text each other hey girl you're beautiful Rock this day set it on fire yo right like I have girls that text each other like good morning beautiful you don't need a text from a man to tell you you're beautiful get a girl and be like could you text me every day and tell me I'm beautiful that we great thank you right somebody text me that I'm beautiful at 7:30 a.m. I'm just kidding okay so then my minion men I have minion men to guys it's going down in the relationships talk this afternoon I am so pumped to have the guys with us amen it's gonna be so fun okay so the guys made this shirt it says just say no to drama just say no to drugs and drama they go together amen are you guys with me on the no more drama like that whole crowd yeah you guys are with me then my girls were like okay that's cute let's do drama free shirts and I was like yeah so these are the drama free shirts and then we were so girly that we couldn't decide which color so we made him in all four colors because we were out of control one night and we decided the maroon was appropriate don't be shot here's the deal if I could go to coffee with you if I could go to lunch with you if right now we could sit in the hallway for four hours I would listen to your entire life story and we would eat every last peanutbutter M&M and I would love you and I would look at you I would tell you that you're beautiful and that you're worth it and we're gonna clear all this crap out of the way so that you can get into that gaze tonight so that you can be told that you're a beloved daughter of God and that you could be convicted in that Jason Everett told me he goes if you don't start writing this stuff down and be really mad at you and I was like I don't want Jason Everett mad at me so for two years during almost every nap time I sat down and I wrote you a letter and everything I would tell you what coffee is in this book it's called emotional virtue a guide to a drama-free relation or guide to drama-free relationships I hand it to you because I want to be with you I want to I want to be in your life and I want you to put this little book in your cute little purse and take it to a duration write I have girls that read it every six months just to remind them like what the heck am I doing with my life who II a my heavenly father tell me who I am and sometimes it helps to have Sarah swafford tell you who you are amen during the three o'clock break I'm gonna be out at the table I want to hug you I want to tell you you're amazing I want to meet you I want to speak truth into your life this weekend because I really really really really really want you to hear it for the first time fresh and new like I said last night amen I want to read you one last thing before we pray I want you to let these words completely wash over you okay maybe would you guys be open to like opening your hands and just putting them like on your just put your hands like on your lap and just just open your hands okay 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 impose our own ideas on the process of completion frequently we set about in a frantic haste to embellish to hastin tour finality to add her 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 interest in the 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 our wishing we have better lives they can look at us and wish their lives were better we want to have and to have more to let others know we have more so that rather than our wishing we had better lives they can look at us and wish their lives were better when we slip into this mode we miss the fundamentals of a much greater importance is it to see the foundation the sculpture itself and to see it as unfinished to see the foundation the sculpture itself and to see it 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 are ever the same rather than chasing after embellishments a better starting point lies and 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 do you know who wrote that father Johnny burns fudge on wrote that and I highlighted the whole page it's in his book called lift up your heart that changed my life change the way I pray I asked father John to come out here and pray with me I want him to pray over you as a man and as a priest and as a father I love him like a brother I want him to come out here and pray over you because you have father--was and you have boyfriend wounds and you have brother wounds and you have mean men in your life wounds that hard black screen that I put up there with all those different dots of all those different things you're struggling with so much of that's going to come back to our identity so much of that is going to come back to that competition we were talking about when I read the sculptor when I read that in that book I was thinking about how much I hastened to finish what I think needs to be done how much we look at other people's lives and wish differently for ourselves sister Miriam James who is one of my dearest friends I look up to her so much she says when she looks out at a crowd of women she sees wildflowers and the reason why it's so beautiful is because they're all different you all are carrying a lot you all are carrying a lot of different wounds what I hope you understand that you're not alone the struggle is real and we're all hurting and we just pledge to not hurt each other in a special way I think that we have to figure out how to see men and women as complementary but different equal and dignity one of my favorite things about Genesis is why did God take Eve from the rib why didn't you pick they like Adams hand or his foot like why did he pick the rib the reason why he picked the rib is cuz he took woman from the rib because that's where he always wants woman in man's life he wants us women at the side of the men under their arm and close to their heart right let me father John one more time he wants you under the arm of the man side-by-side is the helper fit for him close to his heart that's how God made us not to compete with each other not to hate each other but to be helpers for each other I want the your father figures to be like this I want your brother figures to be like this I want if you're called to marriage I want your future husbands to be like this amen I'm gonna let father just speak truth over you I want you to put your hands back out again I want you to just open your hands to receive no no actually I want one hand open to receive and I want you to put the other hand on the shoulder of the girl next to you here's why we're gonna pray healing down upon each other father's gonna pray healing and I want you to pray for yourself but I also want you to pray for the woman next to you loving God we acknowledge that your gaze is upon us and that our hearts are not well we acknowledge all the many things we carry the things we struggle with the things that make us wonder if we're worthy if we matter whether anybody really wants us and God we have looked into so many other eyes seeking answers the eyes of friends the eyes of men looking deep into the heart of another to say am i enough for you do i matter tell me please because we are falling the answers we've received have heard us we acknowledge that we first have to look into your eyes Jesus because the way that you look at us is as the perfect man and Lord we know from that important passage in Genesis that before the fall Eve was the first existing being to cause joy and Adams heart Adam had not rejoiced yet and without sin he looked at her and said at last Lord you have made these women after the pattern of the new Eve meant to bring delight to the hearts of all those who look upon them and I ask you Lord to help them lift their gaze from the world and to look into your eyes into your heart Lord you have set me apart as your priest so that I could speak for you and so I ask you now to speak through me make my words yours speak to these hearts my dear sisters hear Jesus not me hear Jesus say I look upon you my dear beloved one and I love you I look upon you my dear beloved one and I have never seen anyone like you there's never been anyone in existence who has your particular features there's never been another heart like yours and I made it that way because I love it because I love you My dear one you have looked around for answers and you have not let me hold your gaze and so please let me look upon you now and tell you how beautiful you are how lovely you are to behold how much I've longed to bring you to myself to touch the places that hurt to unfold the layers the wounds the fears know how much I see the darkness that is within and I speak truth I am the light of the world and I come to you to scatter darkness to speak truth the truth is that I have made you that I see you I do not take my gaze away you are not alone I am with you and you are lovely to me every hair of your head every movement of your heart all that you are brings joy to my heart my dear one I love you come to me open your heart give me freedom to enter deeply and from within the deepest most sacred place within let me heal you let me know where the pain rests speak to me of the fear offer to me the loneliness no with great confidence that I come to you that I see you and that I love you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] everything [Music] you're so loved [Music] father John and I just stand up here as messengers warriors that fight for you we like to call ourselves ninjas [Music] we speak a bold truth amen we love you God the Father loves you and we look to our lady always who we are to be as women and we look to each other for strength and we pray together hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen Saint Joseph pray for us intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary may Almighty God bless he'll protect and anoint every one of you the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen father John and I will be over by our table at three o'clock to meet you father John's book lift up your heart that you need to get because it's gonna change your life we'll be sitting next to him next to me and we want to hug you and love you and tell you you're amazing because you don't hear it enough and right now I want you to turn to the person next to you and hug them and tell them they're amazing and we will see you in a little bit I love you guys

Channel: Steubenville Youth Conferences

Views: 7,104

Rating: 4.8666668 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Charismatic, Youth Conference, Youth, Conference, Evangelization, Steubenville Conferences, Steubenville

Id: paxEezsa0gM

Length: 53min 47sec (3227 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 14 2018