Name: Elaine Miller | Age: 29 | Location: Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) | Date started covering: May 2016

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1) Introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a 29-year-old single woman living on my own with three dogs: Roman, Charlie Brown, and a third puppy I’m currently trying to re-home.

I grew up in a Baptist household with two older brothers and an older sister. We were all home educated and had a little family band that would travel singing hymns & songs that my father wrote. Both my brothers went into the Marines and are combat veterans. I’m very proud of them both; however, their experiences in the Middle East have made it harder for my family to accept my practice of head covering.

I worked in cosmetics through college, and when I graduated I got a second job as a bank teller. While I have two English degrees, I currently run a small makeup artistry business while working for Honeywell as a Proposal Coordinator.

2) Where do you attend church? Tell us a little bit about it. Do others practice head covering there?

I was led to Over-The-Rhine Living Water Church in November of 2015. It’s a small, inner-city mission which is part of a larger church group called Acts Ministries International. None of the women cover in my church, but they are very supportive. Several sisters have even given me scarves as gifts.

3) What led you to start covering?

After I started attending my current church, I began to feel convicted of the relationship I was in with a non-Christian man. We basically lived together and I had been hiding it from my family and his friends, though my girlfriends and my colleagues knew (big red flag there, obviously). Because I grew up having knowledge of the truth and had memorized an abundance of Scripture, I knew I was wrong before God.

Finally, after several months of conviction, I fell to my knees in brokenness and gave my life fully to Christ. As I fell, I felt compelled to cover my head in submission to the Almighty. I had to surrender my will to His. That was the beginning of my covering journey. And because covering is part of my conversion story, it is very special to me.

After the day I surrendered my will to the Lord, things started changing. I didn’t understand why I felt compelled to cover my head during that time but I knew from my past experience that women covering their heads was at least not contrary to Scripture. Scrolling through Facebook a few weeks later, a picture showed up of a man from my former church camp and his wife singing a song in their church; she was wearing this long, lace mantilla. At that moment I knew there was more to covering than I had initially thought.

After that, I dove into research and read everything I could find about head covering while praying earnestly about how to approach the subject with my family and church. My biggest resource was this website because there is a lot of information here in one place. I also continued to read Scripture and ask the Lord to reveal the truth.

As I read 1 Corinthians 11, I saw several compelling arguments. At that point, it was as if a light bulb turned on. If head covering wasn’t necessary, why would Paul even mention it in his letter? Once I realized that covering our heads is a symbol of submission to the true God and His authority, I recognized its significance and why the Father would want us to be reminded of that role. I need that reminder daily. Read more