Covering Testimony: Allura Lightfoot
Name: Allura Lightfoot | Age: 66 | Location: Mills River, North Carolina | Date started covering: April, 2023
1) Introduce yourself to our readers.
God has been so good to me. He rescued me from clinical depression back in 2006, a time of life that included an eating disorder, self-harm, irrational & paralyzing fears, straying from the boundaries of my marriage through adultery, and subsequent suicide attempts. He set me FREE and I have walked in that freedom for 17 years now!
God also reconciled my husband and I as we trusted in Him alone, and we are now more in love than when we married 44 years ago! We are active in our church and also in ministry as we stand together at Planned Parenthood against the evil of abortion, offering help to moms with unplanned pregnancies.
I don’t share all this to brag about myself but to boast in the Lord. He has done this mighty work in my heart, and I will sing of His love forever! Without Him, I wouldn’t care about anyone besides myself. Our marriage is a trophy of God’s amazing grace to a lost and dying world. So when the Lord impressed on my heart that covering my head in church was a way to express my love for Him and also to honor my husband, how could I refuse?
2) Where do you attend church? Tell us a little bit about it. Do others practice head covering there?
My husband and I were Southern Baptist, then Assemblies of God, and then he was on staff with a televangelist. From there, we joined a church with Sovereign Grace Ministries. So we’ve run the gamut of different denominations! Now we have settled, by God’s grace, in a small Reformed Baptist church called Calvary Fellowship in Mills River, North Carolina. In our church, there are only two women who cover, and they are my daughters’ age.
3) What led you to start head covering?
Many years ago, Dr. R.C. Sproul, his son, and his grandchildren ministered with me at the abortion mill in Orlando and were part of an Operation Save America event in town. I noticed the young ladies in their group all covered their heads and also dressed modestly. As an older woman, I was impressed by their desire to give all the glory to the Lord, and not draw attention to themselves. Through the years, God has brought other women into my life who cover, and I’ve felt it was a sweet and holy thing.
More recently, I kept coming across articles and videos of sermons and teachings about head covering. Finally, in the beginning of April of this year, I stumbled upon a YouTube video by Joel Webbon from Right Response Ministries. I knew it was the Lord bringing me to a place of submission … first to Him, and then to my husband.
My husband and I have been through many difficult times, and almost divorced, but the Lord rescued our marriage for His glory. As my husband Brian has stepped up as the leader in our home over the past eight years, it has at times been difficult for me to take a back seat and be his helpmate, even though I was incredibly grateful for his leadership.
After a few days of private prayer and soul searching, I took the matter of head covering to my husband and said my decision to cover my head was a gift to him and a joyful sacrifice to the Lord for all He has done in our lives. But I also see head covering as a mandate from Scripture for all women, and I rejoice in finally being in a place where I understand it and can obey my Savior.
4) In what ways has head covering helped you since you started?
I just began covering my head for corporate worship about six months ago. It’s definitely been an adjustment, being an older woman and making a commitment like this. But the Lord had been working in my heart, for years actually … although it wasn’t until this past April that I was so convicted by Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians 11 that I went to my husband and shared it with him.
Every time I put a covering on my head, it is a reminder that I belong to Christ. My life is not my own; I’ve been bought with a price. I’ve been redeemed by the Lord and set free from bondage to sin! It is an absolute JOY to worship the one true God, to listen to the preaching of the Word, and to gather for corporate prayer with my head covered as a symbol of my love and submission to my precious Savior and also to my beloved husband who is God’s gift to me. The boundary lines have truly fallen for me in pleasant places (Psalm 16:6).
5) Do you have any practical head covering tips?
Sometimes I struggle with how to pull my Sunday morning look together with a head covering. It was definitely easier before I started covering, but I realize now that I took much pride in my long, curly hair. About three years ago, again by the Lord’s leading, I chose to allow my hair to naturally turn gray, to embrace growing older instead of clinging to youth as the world does. I want to be an example to the younger sisters of a Proverbs 31 woman who doesn’t fear the future, but laughs at it because this world is not my home – I’m just passing through! That may look differently for each woman, but for me, it means not caring so much about appearance but wanting others to see Jesus in me. May Christ be glorified because He alone is worthy!
When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Covering Testimony: Allura Lightfoot - October 20, 2023
- Why I Cover My Head // plus Headcovering Tutorial - July 17, 2023
- Covering Testimony: Amy Larry - March 26, 2023
