Hiding Behind The Lipstick
On February 24, I attended a woman’s conference titled Hiding Behind The Lipstick. I didn’t know what to expect initially, but I left with a completely different outlook on life. Allowing God to use her, pastor Myesha Chaney was able to encourage me and hundreds of other women to put down the mask we were wearing.
Myesha encouraged us to stop hiding. Stop hiding to protect others, stop hiding to keep the peace, stop hiding to please others. She talked about many different personas we can hide behind: the I’m strong and have it all together, the I’m rich and don’t have any problems, or even hiding behind sex. Walking away from this conference I learned that many people hide their hurt (including myself). Myesha pointed out that we owe it to ourselves to be honest about how things effect us. She encouraged us to be transparent with who we truly are because that’s the version of ourselves that God wants to use. God doesn’t want us unhappy or living for others, He wants us happily living for him.
Needless to say this message really blew me away. She has a book version of this, Hiding Behind The Lipstick, with spaces like a workbook to help you work through your hurt, discover, your mask, and helps you remove it. If you can I would go to YouTube and check out some clips of her delivering the message and clips of others sharing their stories.
Here is one she shared in the conference that was really touching. HBTL
Notes from conference:
- This generation craves authenticity
- God wants to use the authentic version of you
- God wants us to stop hiding who He created us to be
Who are you?
- What are you living up to? And does that match the truth of who you are?
Hiding- to put out of sight to conceal for shelter or to cover the truth
- Genesis 3:7-8
- Hiding is a natural response to troubles and fear in life
- We feel guilt
- the lie we believe is shame
The process
1. Cleanser
• Like coming to know Christ
• Makes you vulnerable
2. Toner
• Helps close up the pores
• Toughens us up
• A middle grown
• Find your space
• “Come as you are” part
• Life happened and it’s hurtful
3. Concealer
• Designed to hide imperfections
• The cover up
• When we’re unhappy we hide it because we don’t want people to see that part of us
Why do we hide?
• We want to be in control of our emotions
• As long as we hide we teach the next generation how to hide
What is your lipstick
What have you been hiding behind?
• Affirmation
• Our jobs
• Church
• School
• Money
• Loneliness
• Depression
- Dreams/fantasies distract you from the reality that you’re alone
- God wants us to want love, but in the meantime be honest with your feelings
- You’re more than the persona you put out for people to see
- God wants us to be comfortable with or without what we use to hide
Solutions
1. You have to find you
•Match your perspective to God’s
•Investigate what in you makes you feel like you aren’t enough
•Find who you are by asking God who he intended you to be
2. Make peace with your past
3. Fight for forgiveness
• Stop being angry
- You can stop being angry when you start to look at the stuff that really hurts
• Shouldn’t be a person alive who can change your mood negatively by simply walking in th door
• Time well spent will heal
•Forgiveness comes when we can just say ok
4. Do it in community
5. Ignite the fire
What do we all need
To be affirmed
To be heard
To be included
