By Yvette Harding —
Kathy Ireland, at 18, lived in the dungeon.
“I was staying in the apartment of an agent and I didn’t feel safe there,” Kathy said. “I would lock myself in my room.”
The room was at the end of a dark hallway and all-around creepy. The other models felt an evil presende there and called it the dungeon. But in this room Kathy found the light of God.
Kathy Ireland grew up believing in God, but she never truly knew him.
When she was 18, just beginning her modeling career and living in the home of an agent with whom she didn’t feel very safe around, Kathy picked up a Bible and immediately knew it was the truth.
Her mom, who had recently become a Christian, had snuck it into her suitcase.
Kathy, not having much else to do late at night, flipped to the book of Matthew.
“As I read, my life was forever changed,” Kathy said.
She was shocked that instead of condemning and yelling, God was loving. It was like nothing she had ever read before.
As a young woman in modeling, Kathy felt comforted that Jesus loved women; she knew he would protect her.
One thing Kathy has said she regrets is her staying a baby Christian for so long.
“I would continue to read the Word,” Kathy said. “But I would just read the same verses over and over.”
Any verses that she came across that felt too complicated, she ignored in favor of the simple ones.
She called herself a Christian, but looking back she sees that she wasn’t truly one.
“I was trying to mold God into what I wanted Him to be, rather than allowing Him to mold me into the person He made me to be,” said Kathy.
She had difficulty giving up control to God. She was too self-reliant.
Kathy went to a women’s retreat and felt the Lord imprint on her heart for her to say that he is her first priority.
Kathy felt pulled in every direction, between her kids and God. She realized she’d been putting her kids before God.
God told her that if she put him first, he’d give her more time with her kids.
“I just started getting up earlier and spending time with Him,” Kathy said. “And it would start out gradually. Now I can’t get enough. And He’s our perfect Father. He made us. He knows us. And by putting him first, it’s incredible how He equips us and gives us exactly what we need.”
