Capes & Dresses

By Matt Acton

When Maureen and I graduated Loyola College, one of the girls on my floor gave us a special graduation gift... matching capes with an "M" stitched on the back. We both loved our capes, but for different reasons. For me, my love and appreciation of the gift came from the fact that it was a cape. Some of my fellow graduates were entering the workforce with monogrammed dress shirts, but I had a monogrammed cape! It also took me back to my childhood when my brothers and I used to tie towels around our necks and protect our neighborhood from evil as an elite team of superheroes. Maureen's love and appreciation for her cape came from somewhere different. She loved it because it matched my cape and we were going to be married in a little more than six months. For her, the cape held a special relational connection. Our different reactions to our capes highlight some of the many differences between men and women.

When a boy playing in the backyard picks up a stick, it's not a stick he's picking up; it's a gun... a sword... a bow and arrow. Nobody has to teach him this. It's almost as if it's hard-wired into him. When our three-year old daughter puts on a dress, she instantly begins to smile and twirl and dance. We certainly didn't teach her the fine art of dress-twirling; it's just what she thought she was supposed to do. I realize I am writing in generalizations. Not every boy picks up a stick and imagines a sword and not every little girl loves dresses. All men are not the same and all women are not identical. But there is something different about men and women, and I don't just mean in our anatomy. There's something unique... something special placed into us by our Creator.

So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1:27, emphasis added)

God didn't just create mankind. He created men and he created women and he created them differently. It's these differences that we hope to celebrate this spring on our Student Ministries High School Retreat. We're attempting something new here. Instead of gathering all the high school students together for one big retreat, we're gathering them together for two big retreats!

This May, the high school guys in our church and community will be invited to a special retreat weekend just for them, led by a team of men from our congregation. We'll be exposing some of the false pictures of manhood and masculinity presented by our society and culture and giving them the necessary tools to discover what true masculinity really is. At the same time, a team of women from our church will be leading the girls on a weekend getaway to explore their identity as daughters of the King, as well as what that means in relation to their fellow sisters in Christ (and brothers in Christ too.)

As I mentioned before, this is something new. As far as we know, it's never been done here before. All those involved are very excited about what's already being talked about and planned. High school students and parents of high school students should stop by the display in the Concourse for more details about the retreat, including how to sign up. We would also like to invite and encourage everyone in the congregation to pray for this retreat opportunity on the weekend of May 4th. If you would be interested in specific prayer requests or want more information about this retreat and other Student Ministry opportunities, please stop by the display in the Concourse or the Student Ministry office in the Loft.