Diamond LeadHership is a 8 month, bi-weekly leadership development program that prepares and encourages teen girls in grades 6-12 to become exemplary young women who can contribute positively to their schools, community and country.

Diamonds get their brilliance from three things: reflection, refraction and dispersion. Only a portion of the light hitting a diamond is reflected; the rest travels through it. As the light moves through the diamond, it is scattered and fractured, creating the SPARKLE that diamonds are known for.

We are all diamonds in the rough. A diamond is nothing more than a clump of carbon, coal that refused to give in to pressure. Diamonds are the hardest known natural. But what makes the diamond so strong is also what makes it so intriguingly beautiful. Intense heat and pressure cause carbon to crystalize over the course of billions of years. Formed deep within the earth’s mantle, diamonds are brought to the earth’s surface during violent pressure and change. We are all just like diamonds.  Life’s sudden disruptions bring our true worth, value, and strength to the surface. The incredible pressure we face during hardships and fiery trials cause the hidden treasure within us to emerge. A diamond’s resilient nature makes it stable, pure, and strong.

The more the diamond is tested, tried, cut, and polished, the more light it can reflect! The more you overcome, the more valuable you ultimately become. To fulfill its purpose, the diamond needs to be excavated, cut and polished. This is the mission with which every one of us has been charged. The first step is gaining the awareness that in the hard rock is hidden a precious diamond. We must identify the diamond and reach for it with unconditional love. The second step is excavation and cutting: clearing away the externals and allowing the diamond to emerge. To reveal the diamond in a raw world of rock requires work and resilience—peeling away the outer layers, shedding unrefined habits, eliminating the inappropriate behaviors and allowing the diamond to surface. Some stones need to be sawed, others cleaved and chiseled. They then need to be rounded out and polished through allowing another facet in us to shine. And finally, this process yields the completed diamond that “SPARKLES” radiates and beautifies this world.

Transformation is far from easy. Yet, no matter what the furnace or the trial, God will cause us to prevail! Those who suffer the greatest pressure, the most agonizing trials, the severest losses, are being fashioned to shine. Your trials don’t define you – they refine you. In the darkest of circumstances, you will come out on top and shine through the things that tried to break you. We were designed and destined to be overcomers! Use every circumstance to prevail, diamonds can’t be scratched; they leave their mark on others! Only another diamond can cut through a diamond. We are here to make sure every girl knows she is a diamond and she will always “SPARKLE” and leave a little shine wherever she goes.

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