You are more precious than pearls.
Perhaps you are here for such a time as this?
OUR STORY BEGAN...
...with realizing the undeniable Power of Prayer. In August 2015, the first “Spiritual Sistas” small group began in the living room of my home. I felt totally unequipped to lead a Bible study, but thought if I just opened my home, the Lord would show up… and He surely did! We grew to a group of ten ladies from 20 to 40, all of us with different stories and in different stages of life. We began our first study together and made sure that at every gathering, we fervently and intentionally PRAYED for one another…. and then shared and celebrated those answers to prayer. And they came. And kept coming. We saw healing, breakthroughs, mended relationships, more healing, pregnancies, new jobs, opened doors, closed doors, and salvations. We confidently agreed that, “If the spiritual sistas are praying for it, it’ll happen!” It was EXCITING! In August 2020, a second small group (also appropriately named the “Spiritual Sistas” was formed, and God moved again. Through God’s faithfulness and an observed need for wisdom in our nation, launched the idea to Pray Her Forward!
We all need a spiritual mother. We all need a mentor.
Pray Her Forward recognizes the need each of us have for participating in the Body of Christ as both mentees and mentors. We are a place for mentorship and fellowship—bringing women together of all ages to lift one another up in Christ. We are a place for being vulnerable, lending a listening ear, and asking, "But how are you really?" We are a place that can relate to the trenches of late teens to early twenties.
We are a place that wants you to know how precious you truly are.
Free E-book of Topical Verses + Prayers
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Our Mission
- To fulfill the third part of the Great Commission which is: “to teach believers to obey Jesus’s commands.” (Matthew 28:20)
- To help young women navigate life through a Christian lens, inso sharpening their faith as iron sharpens iron. (Proverbs 27:17)
- To pass on the experience of other women, thereby “teaching what is good” (Titus 2:3-5) and increasing Biblical knowledge.
- To “shepherd the flock and be examples to them so as to partake in the glory that is to be revealed.” (1 Peter 5:1-5)
- To provide mentees with counsel and advisers so that their plans succeed. (Proverbs 15:22)
Our Beliefs
- There is only one true God as part of the Trinity (God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit). (2 Corinthians 13:14)
- Jesus Christ, the Son of God, walked the earth, lived a blameless life, died on the Cross and rose again so that our sins would be forgiven. (Luke 23:33-46)
- We are saved by professing with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believing in our hearts that He rose from the dead. (Romans 10:9-11)
- We are saved by grace alone and not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-10)
- Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
The Significance of the Pearl
Why do pearls represent the foundation of Pray Her Forward? Our English word “pearl” is actually derived from Sanskrit, which means “pure.” Biblically, the concept of holiness carries the idea of purity with it. In the New Testament, the pearl is a symbol of Jesus’s perfection and His salvation. The pearl is also biblically symbolic of wisdom! Job 28:18 says “Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning. The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.”
The unique symbolism represented by the formation of a pearl is also fascinating. Pearls are formed from brokenness. When an irritant like a tiny piece of sand, shell, or bacteria, becomes trapped inside the shell of an oyster or mussel, layers of materials that make up its shell are secreted, and after months or years, form a perfectly magnificent pearl. This process also represents heaven, for through salvation and sanctification we may enter heaven through “twelve gates of twelve pearls” and “each gate is made of one single pearl” (Revelation 21:21).
Thus, the pearl seamlessly became the symbol for Pray Her Forward.
I was a terror as a teenager...
Okay, I wasn’t that bad. But my older sister was, of course, an angel and rarely left the house, while I was sneaking out to meet boys at age 14. My mom would lament to her sister about my disobedience and my aunt would console her with “Leighton’s not the problem child… she’s NORMAL! What teenager doesn’t experiment with a rebellious stage?!” I stubbornly had to learn the hard way, or should I say, MY way.
Enter Mark and Terri Young, my fearless youth pastors and just the two mentors I needed. For years, they somehow wrangled 20+ youngsters every week for 3-4 hours, including some risky church “lock-ins” a few times a year (if ya know, ya know.) They were 20 years my senior, but when they spoke, I listened. I mean REALLY listened. Bless my parents’ hearts, they weren’t teaching me anything that different or novel at home, but because they carried the “mom and dad” label, in my 15-year old mind, their word was null and void.
Mentorship changed my life.
From youth group on, I always had a mentor, sometimes two, now many, to steer me towards God and away from... myself. My transformative teens did not happen by chance. My parents probably knew they were “the enemies” in my undeveloped mind (sorry parents, it’s just a true assumption of 99.99% of teens!) Thank God He strategically planted two mentors in my life with wisdom.
My heart’s desire is to pass the gift of mentorship to my younger sistas (yes, you!) and that you would also learn from the older and wiser. It is such a gift to have a mentor who has been-there-done-that, and an even more precious gift to have one who has witnessed the Power of Prayer.
I implore you to pray for a mentor—to resist the temptation to do life alone. I encourage you to surrender all to God to find His peace. I welcome you to ask for wisdom to discover His perfect will for you. I invite you to lean into His powerful, life-changing Word,
for you are more precious than pearls!
