It’s initiation time in some high school sororities and clubs. In an attempt to either embarrass or teach some initiates a lesson in the less-is-more makeup approach, those girls are not allowed to wear makeup this week. For some, this was terrifying. Being seen without their usual facemask of makeup might cause classmates to realize what they really look like. For others, it was liberating. Now that people know what they look like without makeup, the pressure is off to make sure their faces are perfect every morning.
If it’d been me, I’d have been in the first group—not thrilled to be told I couldn't wear makeup. Not so much because I looked all that different without makeup, but because concealer is a close friend of mine. Acne was the source of such frustration and heartache for me in high school. I agonized over my face, lamenting the fact that other girls didn’t have to deal with it like I did. (And my acne really wasn’t that bad then, and I'm sure other girls were dealing with it as much as I was, in retrospect.) But I think that had everyone else gone without makeup too, it would have been a very freeing experience.
You get glimpses of that freedom during retreats, swimming parties, and hard-labor mission trips when girls see each other without all the typical stuff they use to project an image of perfection. Once the makeup, nice clothes, accessories, etc. are left out, it levels the playing field somewhat.
I’ve seen this happen spiritually, too. One girl takes off her mask and reveals something very real that she’s struggling with. Other girls realize that they’re not alone. One by one, the masks come down.
Authenticity is so important. Our students crave it from us, from each other, and from themselves. How are you encouraging it in your girls? Do you have a mask you need to take off yourself?
I interviewed Britt Nicole yesterday for an article on divorce that I’m writing. Her parents divorced when she was 7, and she was very open about her struggles with the changes in her family and learning to forgive her parents. She relayed her confusion about just not understanding what was happening. Thankfully, she turned to Jesus during that rough time. She recounted to me how she’d run to her room, grab her big, white Precious Moments Bible (how many of us had one of those?!), read it, and cry. She said she could sense God’s presence with her then.
Unfortunately, I don’t think most of our students take the same approach. They’re dealing with the confusion of divorce, but spending time in the Word is not how most of them cope. I travel the country several times a year with a team conducting focus groups with students. And when we ask how many of them have watched their parents or a friend’s parents go through a divorce, every hand goes up. When we ask them to tell us about the issues they’re facing in their families, they write that a large part of those issues stem from divorce. It’s heartbreaking.
In the town I come from, divorce isn’t common. A divorce rocked the community. And thankfully, of my 12 closest friends today, all of our parents have solid marriages. So needless to say, I’ve been a little taken aback at how frequently our students are having to deal with this tough issue. What about you? How does divorce affect you and your students? Take our poll below and let us know.
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If it weren’t for Jesus, I’d probably sleep later.
Let me explain. I have my time alone with God in the morning. It’s quiet in my apartment (my roommate isn’t up yet), my tea is hot, my breakfast is eaten, and it’s just us—God and me. I love that time of the morning. Those words on the onion-skin-thin pages are old, but they still turn out fresh meaning to me most mornings. But if Jesus had never come to earth and turned society’s ideals upside down, the Bible as we know it wouldn’t even be around, so I wouldn’t feel compelled to read the Word, to dig into His words every morning, to pray and be heard.
But after sleeping in, where would I get up and go? I’d definitely have a different job. I work for LifeWay. My whole line of work is completely pointless without Christ. If Christianity didn’t exist, then neither would the corporation I work for nor building in which I work. There’s no telling where I’d be working. It probably wouldn’t even matter much. I wouldn’t be concerned about making an impact for Christ. Let’s be honest here. I’d just be concerned about climbing the corporate ladder and making as much money as possible.
So at the end of the day, when I left whatever job I was working, maybe, just maybe, I’d have more free time. I wouldn’t be at church three days a week. I’d sleep in on Sundays, like several of my unbelieving friends. The Sabbath would just be another day of the week.
Whom would I hang out with in all that free time? Without the body of Christ, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet like-minded people or to mentor that group of high school girls. I wouldn’t have met most of my current friends—our paths simply would have never crossed outside of church.
I’m frightened at just how different my life would be. So much of what I do every day is filtered through my faith (how I dress, where I go, whom I date, what I read, watch, and listen to, etc.). And that’s just my life.
It baffles my mind to think about how the world would be affected if Christianity had never existed. Without the higher purpose in life of living as Jesus taught, our sense of love, justice, and mercy is skewed (or non-existent). So our society would look a lot different. The concept of social justice comes from Christ’s teachings: Jesus elevated the poor’s status (and women’s too!). Our concern for them comes from what He taught.
Yes, our lives and the world would be a lot different had Jesus Christ not come to earth so long ago. But I forget that. I’m from the South. I was raised in the Bible Belt. I definitely take my faith for granted, as it has (thankfully) been a part of me for as long as I can remember.
What aspect of your faith do you need to dust off and reexamine? (How coincidental that Michelle blogged on this theme earlier this week! I wrote this post months ago, but decided last week to post it today.) Have you let some part of your relationship with Jesus or your view of God get stale? It’s easy to get caught up in all the busyness that is ours as we minister to our families, church families, friends, and communities and then forget why we do what we do. And it’s easy to start to think about how much more pleasant our lives might be if we did a little less for the Kingdom.
BUT, Christianity doesn’t make our lives or living in the world easy, but it does make our lives purposeful—in this life and the next. Think about your life. In what ways has Christianity made an impact in your life? How would your life be different if Jesus hadn’t come? Are you grateful for those differences?
Answer our poll (or if you’re feeling wordy, leave us a comment) and let us know how different your life would look if Jesus hadn’t decided to come down here in person 2,000 years ago.
So I had a little summer reunion with my small group girls earlier this week. Over sushi, we caught up on what’s going on in their lives, who’s been where on vacation, and the perils of tanning. I was touched that so many of them came. I honestly thought maybe two would show up, but we had a full table of seven.
Although concerned at the summer tops a few of the girls had on which showcased most of their chests, I was ecstatic and proud to hear one girl tell another her shirt was showing too much. I almost missed it, but I saw the girl adjusting her top with a sheepish look on her face and then say apologetically to me that she knew it was kind of (kind of?!) low-cut. I don’t think I even tried to hide my smile/glee at the fact that these girls were holding each other accountable. One of my less-attuned-to-reality girls said that she wasn’t worried about her low-cut top when it was pointed out by the other girls because “there was nothing to look at.” I quickly reminded her that just the suggestion of breasts was all a guy needed. (And we had examined this for an entire semester when we studied Insider last semester! Guess that didn’t really sink in as far as I’d hoped, at least with her.) Again, I got the sheepish look.
But all in all, I walked away encouraged. One, that my girls actually wanted to spend time with me outside of our Wednesday nights during the school year, and two, that some accountability and object lessons happened over dinner.
So, I have to know, what do YOU spend most of your time addressing with your girls? Take the poll below to let us know!
