I was so blessed to be able to serve at this event this year. She Matters is a conference, held at Hope Point Nazarene Church in Yuba City, centered around discipleship of young women.
We are passionate about speaking worth, acceptance, and love into the lives of teenage girls.
As daughters of Christ, we are not alone! We are all created in the image of God. - Hannah Maddalena
My mother, Stephanie Scellato of Scellato Designs created the floral design pieces for this event.
I was so blessed to be a part of an event that had such a powerful and positive atmosphere that brought women together.
True sisterhood isn’t a clique, it’s a team.
We started the evening off with some wonderful worship led by Chanta Apodaca and Jessica Suarez.
Our first speaker was Tara Armstrong. She founded She Shifts Culture with the following tagline:
WE PRAY. WE EMPOWER. WE UNITE.
WE ASK, "WHAT CAN WE DO?", AND DO IT.
WE WALK IN LOVE, WE WALK IN AUTHORITY, WE WALK IN INFLUENCE.
WE LOOK WITHIN OURSELVES AND THEN BEYOND OURSELVES.
......AND SHIFT CULTURE.
Tara spoke about how we all have some little personal flaw that we don’t like about ourselves. She compared it to a little dot on a big white page and brought up how we fixate on the dot, and not everything else around it. We are our own worst critics, so she made each girl write down a lie that they believed about themselves.
She then asked if anyone would like to share theirs. In a giant room filled with young girls. It was intimidating.
But Mikayla, shown below, bravely volunteered to go first. If sharing a personal detail wasn’t intimidating enough, Tara requested that she stand on a chair so everyone could see her. She confessed the lie that she believed, that she was not pretty.
To combat this lie, Mikayla needed a truth to hold onto. To help her, the whole room erupted with female voices saying, “MIKAYLA YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! MIKAYLA YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! MIKAYLA YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!”
This was such a powerful moment, banishing this negative self talk and replacing it with God’s truth and love. After Mikayla, many other girls volunteered to share their lies with the group and Tara invited everyone to nail their lie to the cross.
A rush of young women came to the altars, they were all packed side-by-side, united. I’ve never seen the altars this full at a regular service. It reminded me of my mission trip to Brazil, where the the altars became so packed that the isles were filled with people!
The first day was obviously a big success and I was so excited to see what God would do the next day!