Northway Girls

Dear ladies of my Beth Moore group,

It has been an amazing journey. In the three years that I have been with the group I have learned far more than what Beth meant to teach. In 2006, I had never been part of a church family and in the next year and a half, I desperately struggled with the good and the bad of close quarters with my royal family members in the studies.

.....I learned to love those that at first I did not love.
.....I learned to see and admit my own faults more readily because of others openess and seeing the same faults in them....
.....I learned to abandon myself to my relationship with Christ by the way these women did.
.....I learned to swallow my pride and accept the authority of the leaders that were placed with us because this was God's will.
.....I learned to love others so deeply that I can't even put it adequately into words.
.....I learned to share what I knew with gentleness and kindness - not defensiveness and frustration.
.....I learned that it's okay not to agree with everything and that some issues just aren't a big enough issue to tackle.
.....I learned that prayer is the most powerful tool we can use to help others.
.....I learned that I can't do this alone. I need people and in the same way, others need me. God designed for me to share - not stuff myself in a closet.

So I walked out the door of the church last night toward a different goal. I will be leading my own study at Iron City Church and developing that family closer to "home." Providing a place where women can come and learn and grow together like that at ICC. But I will try my darnedest to stay in touch with as many of them as possible because, quite honestly, I love them and I know each of them was a gift from heaven.

Thank you, Father for giving me the gift of them.

Daniel 1 and 2
Fruits of the Spirit
The Tabernacle
Psalm of the Ascents
Esther

The best seat in the house

Thank you so much for anyone who has taken time to pray for my friend. She and her family have been blessed over and over in the last nearly two weeks. People have stepped up and heard God calling them to be generous in spirit in some way and it has been truly beautiful. We are all growing in this. And watching has been a gift that God has honored me with. Keep praying!

A Month of Kimptons

So this month has been the month of the Kimptons. Sarah came the first weekend, then came Easter and last weekend was Molly and finally this weekend we have Ben and Grace. It has really been fun. Sarah and I had so much fun. We got to talk and act silly and do fun things and I just really loved spending time with her. She's a lot of fun. Then last weekend Molly came. We did a bunch of things together and had a lot of fun too. I was a little sad that she's growing up and getting a bit adolescent - trying to not act as silly, concerned about how to behave grown up and sometimes distant. I know kids go through that but it was a bit sad for me. I guess part of me doesn't want her to grow up. However, those moments were punctuated with some great fun. We talked and hiked and goofed off. And we had a great talk after church about our yuckier selfish and mean sides. We're headed off to the zoo this weekend and it should be great fun and our first weekend with summer like weather!! I'm sure there will be pictures to post!

Prayer request

Hmmm. All those times when I read other blogs and people asked for prayer that is veiled out of courtesy and confidentiality, come back around. I have a dear friend who is going through a monstrously difficult time. I can't really say more than that but please pray for her and her husband and her kids over the next month.

I am so proud to be part of our church as I've seen so many people rally around them out of love. In fact it occured to me that having a church family is not only an amazing blessing but an exercise in humility. It's a step that God puts in place to ensure that we fully realize that we CANNOT do it on our own. It takes the swallowing of the pride to accept help from people. I know it would be ridiculously hard for me. But once you accept help from God's children, you begin to understand that it's His way of holding you and filling you up.

Pray for her peace. Pray for her patience. Pray for her strength. Pray for her love. Pray for her children. Pray that God will turn this into a reversal of destiny that we can't even imagine.

Oh Jealousy!

I wish it weren't true but envy is sometimes a humongous problem for me. As I may have mentioned in the past, unfairness is some kind of trigger for me. Don't know why. Seems to be woven into the fabric of me. Yuck. Might have been a brief twinge in the last few years. Nothing significant. Then a few weeks ago, it reared its ugly head and I had to literally give myself a time out and pray about it. Last week was worse though. It was like some horrible dragon inside of me and I became jealous of someone I consider my friend. What kind of friend feels that way? Um - one that has her own lion's share of sin to deal with. I was bad. And I unleashed it on Bob and he was flat out disgusted by it - should have been too. It was hard to take that - but I deserved it. I should have gone to God when I first felt it brewing and I didn't. Instead I allowed myself to compose a lengthy list of reasons that it wasn't fair..... and it got pretty bad. There was a lot of scolding and lots of crying. I need that kind of reminder that I have plenty of my own sins.

Tommy often talks about Satan getting at us where we live during weeks when we're up to big stuff at ICC. And I often feel out of the line of fire. It wasn't coincidental that the enemy attacked during the week before Easter. And he attacked in a way that would have an outcome on Easter morning. Fortunately, Christ didn't win the moment but he won the battle and as a result, there was joy and love on Easter rather than jealousy and envy. Take that Satan. I have weakness but you don't own it. I am not ruled by sin.