All True Beauty lessons on this blog are my unedited outlines. Feel free to ask questions regarding anything that may seem unclear, since some things are written down to jog my memory.
True Beauty
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
- Prayer
- Introductions
- Name
- Age and birthdate
- Phone #, cell phone # and if text or not, unlimited?
- One thing you like about being a girl
- A funny fact about yourself.
- What are their expectations and thoughts about the summer?
- Overview
- What the summer will look like:
- Wednesdays (12 weeks), topical
- Thursdays (11 weeks), for the older girls, training for womanhood; cooking, cleaning, sewing, serving, budgeting, arts and crafts, etc.
- Babysitting once every three weeks for parents’ date night.
- Final project; implementing (putting into practice) everything learned over the summer. You will plan an evening for your parents to take place the end of the summer.
- What the summer will look like:
- What you can expect from me
- Why I’m doing this: “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.” –Titus 2:3-5
- I want you to know the things that I was taught growing up that helped me the most and what I wish I would have been taught. I won’t give you all the answers, I want you to think for yourself to understand how to better study God’s Word, and therefore I will ask questions. I want you to bloom into the women that God created you to be. I want to help you, love you and be your friend.
- I will treat you like the young women you are, with respect and sincerity. Again, I will ask questions and get to know you, the real you. I will make this as fun as possible but I take God’s Word very seriously and sometimes it won’t be fun. I will listen to you, be there for you whenever you need me, love you and teach you as much about what God says women are as possible.
- Expectations of them
- Involved; good listener, ask questions, read verses when asked, be respectful of me and others. This means do not talk while others are talking. If you have a question, say ‘excuse me’.
- Older girls are to help the younger, think for them; do they understand? If not, help them. Take initiative.
- Memory verses.
- Bring your Bible and a journal.
- No phones on Wednesdays or Thursdays (PHONE BASKET)
First lesson: Modesty
This is the foundation we will build upon for the rest of the summer.
What do you think modesty is?
Why should we be modest?
“Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.” -1 Timothy 2:9-11
What stands out to you in these verses? What does it say modesty is?
Modesty must be something more than clothing.
“Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” -1 Peter 3:3-4
Imperishable = will not die.
Beauty that does not die. We all want to be beautiful but Peter says that it is the beauty of a gentle and quiet Spirit the is very precious in the eyes of the Lord.
Modesty manifested in three main areas: Appearance, Speech and Behavior
Appearance: Like we’ve just read, we are not to focus on the outside as much as the inside. Back in that day women in the church were living impure and self-centered lives and that practice carried over into the worship service, where they became distractions because of what they wore.
Have you ever looked at someone and thought, “What is she wearing?” You were distracted by it. Just like back in the days of Peter when he was writing this and their practice of impurity carried over into their choice of clothing, our lives and practice of striving for godliness and purity should carry over into what we wear.
Our appearance does not need to be our identity, where we find our value and worth, our appearance should be a frame for our real identity to shine forth. Our real identity must be found in Christ and who He says we are.
When we wear short shorts and show a lot of our leg, or low shirts that show a lot of our chest we are not reflecting the modesty of the Lord. In fact, dressing like that can cause guys, boys, to look at us in ways they do not need to.
So I want you to learn that our clothing choices affect more people than just us. (Get more into that on Thursday with the older girls)
Why do you think girls dress the way they do, showing a lot of skin?
Attention junkies. We want attention. We want guys and girls to look at us and think we are beautiful, that we’re worth something. We want acceptance.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’” -1 Samuel 16:7
And what is very precious in the sight of the Lord? Look back at 1 Peter 3.
So our appearance should be put together, we can wear make up (although we don’t need to wear much because we don’t want to look fake), we should look nice and dress nice because we want to display our love for God, but it is our gentle spirit, our respectful and honoring personality where our true beauty lies.
What do you think a gentle and quiet spirit looks like?
Gentle = having a mild or kindly nature or character; meek; easily controlled
Meek = the opposite of being out of control
Quiet = free from anger, impatience, or other extreme emotion
We’ll get deeper into this throughout the rest of the summer.
Our example in having a gentle and quiet spirit is Jesus and the ultimate goal in modesty is to reflect Christ. What is a reflection? When you look in a mirror what do you see? Yourself. The Bible says that we are to reflect Christ to everyone, because if they see us when they look at us, it won’t do them any good- can we save them from their sins and give them a relationship with God? No. We want them, when they look at us, to see Jesus Christ because it is only He who can change lives and give us a beautiful heart that makes our physical appearance much, much more attractive.
Leslie Ludy- True Beauty video
Questions and Answers
Memory Verse: 1 Samuel 16:7
Sophie Miller 