I am working on a talk I was asked to give for the St. Clare teen girls’ retreat this spring. Part of my talk is on learning to see yourself as God sees you, and the actions and ways of thinking that naturally come from that.
I always try include some kind of personal story when I give talks, and I found myself including some of my post-high school modeling experiences as well as the story of how Michael and I met. I thought I’d share a little with you. 🙂
When I graduated from high school, I received a special award from my classmates called the “SJA Award.” It was an award voted on by the senior class for a classmate whom they felt best exemplified the school ideals of the dignity, service, kindness and respect. I was absolutely surprised to win that award. I had no idea that anybody would even think of nominating me!
That night, I felt like I must have had a sign on my back saying, “I’m available, please hit on me.” These were not gentleman awed by the beautiful creation of God they were seeing. They didn’t care or see that I might be a nice person. I once heard a seminarian explain that the best guys have lustful thoughts pop into their heads when they see a woman, but they immediately dismiss and reject those thoughts. He explained that the worst guys take those lustful thoughts and “run with them.” These were the kind of men who were looking at me and gleefully letting their thoughts run away.
That story never gets old, Erin. It was great to see you this weekend!