By Michaela Gordoni
Kathy Ireland may have gotten her start as a model, but what’s most important to her is that she models Christ.
She was staying in Paris at the age of 18 when she pulled out a Bible her mom had put in her suitcase.
“I’d never read one before,” she told The Christian Post. “I opened to the book of Matthew, and as I read, I knew that what I had in my hands was the truth. I just thought, I want to follow Him. I want to follow Jesus.”
Eventually she thought, “If God is with us, who can be against us? I didn’t care who liked me or didn’t like me. He loved me. What else mattered?”
Her mom became a Christian late in life when she returned to school to be a nurse. She noticed that something was different about one of her classmates.
“My mom said, ‘What is it with you? You have three teenage daughters. I have three teenage daughters. But you have this peace,’” Ireland recalled. “And the woman said, ‘Jesus.’”
When Ireland read her Bible in Paris, she realized what she’d been told about Christianity wasn’t true.
“I had been told growing up that following Jesus wasn’t good for women,” Ireland said. “But the truth was right there. Jesus loves women and honors and respects women.”
Related: Kathy Ireland Cautions About AI: ‘Can be Used for Good or Evil’
“That was powerful, especially as a young woman entering an industry dominated by men of questionable character,” she explained.
The knowledge that she was valued as God’s child gave her more confidence as a woman.
“I could say no,” she said. “That mattered.”
After her time as a model and actress, she became an entrepreneur.
“I didn’t want to earn a living on how someone else thought I looked,” Ireland said. “That’s not my identity. Daughter of the King, I’ll take that one.”
“I love the Scripture that says, ‘The one who is forgiven much loves much,’ and I love a whole bunch,” she added. “And in the past, I was a very slow learner, and God is so patient.”
Still, Ireland didn’t read the whole Bible until she was 44 and regrets time that she wasted. But she finds comfort in the book of Joel.
“The verse that God placed on my heart is Joel 2:25, intended for the Israelites, yet applicable to all of us. God says, ‘I will restore the years the locusts have eaten.’ And He’s so faithful.”
She knew that while His word led her to Him, she still would question it.
“I was picking and choosing what I wanted and what I didn’t want,” Ireland told MS Christian Living.
She told Today’s Christian Woman, “I’m a late bloomer. I remained a baby Christian for a long time. Fortunately, God is faithful even when we mess up. Today my goal is that my life will be in line with his will, not my own.”
Since reading the Bible through at 44, she’s learned so much. And 10 years later, she started an online Bible study for women that she still leads to this day.
“The enemy knows the Word of God,” Ireland explained. “It’s not enough to read it. It’s not a book that you read like any other book.”
She added, “We’ve got to know what the word of God says, so we can identify the counterfeit.”
She hopes that her life now shows Jesus in it.
“That’s why I’m here another day. I can honestly say I am good because God is good. I read the last page,” she said.
“It’s all going to be OK,” Ireland emphasized. “Just keep your eyes on Him.”
Read Next: Kathy Ireland Talks Faith Journey: ‘I Love Jesus. I Want To Follow Him’
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