Teaching: Purity Retreat
Preparation 3 hrs
Time I was there 3 1/2 hrs


I spoke to young girls ranging from the ages of 10- 15 speaking to them about purity, insecurities, how God views them, and how men should treat them from a godly perspective. It was all apart of a Girls weekend, geared toward teaching young girls about body image and purity. There were approximately 20- 30 girls who attended, all ranging from different backgrounds and different areas of Marion. Some of the girls were from Christian homes and others were not, some we're sexually abused, abused themselves, or dealt with insecurities.

Schedule
5:30 6:00 Set up and practice
6:00-6:30 We ate and fellowshipped
6:45-7:20 I spoke


I began by opening up with scripture:

Isaiah 64:8

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Then I showed a video and asked them to think of those scriptures. The video was an example of how media distorts beauty. They took a woman's picture and changed her features so I asked them to identify them.

And explained how we allow other factors to set the standard for what beauty but allow God to set the standard. I continued on to share my testimony about dealing with insecurities.

After I finished my testimony I had the girls stand and say that they were beautiful women of
God. I continued on by talking about how God views us as women, and if God views us that way, we should treat ourselves as such. I also talked about how men of God should view and treat women.

Using 1 Peter 3:4 and Proverbs 31

How a man should view us

A man of God should treat a woman of God as if he was treating His own body; he should love her as Christ would love her.

A virtuous woman is sweeter than honey and more precious than fine diamonds.

If he is a man of God, then he see's woman in the analogy that Christ set fourth. She represents a bride to be presented to Christ. Women are not possessions to be had, they are not and will never be a man’s to possess. As women of God, they belong to him, and as a man of God, it becomes our job to protect them for Him. Some people say that taking care of women with chivalry is old school, and I would agree. But, God is old school and with him, that fact makes him all the more relevant. Therefore, I see the way men of God treat women of God from the perspective of old school and just as relevant today as it has always been.

A virtuous woman is like the valuable pearl that the man sold everything he had to obtain. A man should be willing to give what he has to have the opportunity to be entrusted with something as valuable in the kingdom of God as a virtuous woman.

Response: It went very well. The girls were attentive but after a while I could tell they were getting a bit tired so I cut it short. Afterwards I talked to a girl for 40 minutes talking about family, faith in God, and especially her sister.