In the women’s session, Rachel Leininger shared that she believes in authentic friendship and that we as women are made in God’s image. As God is in community with the Trinity, women also need community with one another in holy friendship.

Rachel has had many different seasons of friendship in her life. When she was young, they were easy and uncomplicated. As she grew older, friendships began to encompass more “girl drama” as concern over popularity, relationships with boys, and competition began to infiltrate them.

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What does it mean to be an ideal woman? How do we courageously live out that ideal while also building holy, lasting friendships with other women?

According to the world’s changing standards, during the last 60 years, the definition of woman has encompassed a wide range. From the “domestic goddess” of the ’50s, to the “anything goes/hippy” stereotype of the ’60s/’70s, and including the more recent, “be like a man,” message of the ’80s /’90s, it is difficult to discern a woman’s purpose. During this morning’s women’s session, Lisa Cotter explains how trying to keep up with these shifting ideals is exhausting at best and impossible at worst.

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Perfect. Skinny. Put together. Good with kids. Beautiful. Smart. The world has a lot of ideas about what a woman should be, and we are constantly bombarded with images of the world’s standards for us.

It’s a bunch of lies. What we need is to restore our identity of true femininity because we have an important mission as woman. The truth of who God created us to be can change how we navigate the confusing messages of the world. God created male and female with a specific purpose in mind. When we root our sense of identity in the truth of what God intends, we find freedom to be ourselves.

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This summer, Chika Anyanwu is speaking at Steubenville conferences for the first time! Before lunch, she shared some beautiful insights with all the ladies, providing a vision for what authentically restored femininity looks like.

She began by reminding us that we were created good. In the book of Genesis, Adam looked around at all the creatures and named them. He saw that he did not belong with them. That’s when Eve entered the picture. She was good, and Adam saw in her a companion. Eve’s first identity is in being found and being seen as good. As women, we claim that identity, too.

Unfortunately, one little lie about our identities can spread. We start thinking that because we don’t have the same gifts or life as other people, we aren’t good. In the same way that Satan planted seeds of doubt in Eve’s heart about the goodness of God, we doubt our goodness.

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“Before the creation of the world, God had a plan, and you were part of it.”