THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS - coming soon

Wow, sure has been a very long time since I put anything here.

I have now written 4 Bible studies for young girls.  The 5th one is almost completed.  The first two were printed week to week.  The 3rd one was printed at St. Luke Lutheran church and bound at Office Depot.  The 4th one was printed and bound at Office Depot.

I have decided as we study each week, beginning September 14th, to put some of the highlights here.  Not sure what it will include but I will include the comments from the girls.  They will be memorable, I know.

When we were studying the Fruit of the Spirit last fall, I read a long piece of scripture to the girls and then asked what they had heard.

Tyner's awesome response was,

          That was a whole lot of words!!!!

Yep, God's word, is a whole lot of words.  I can't wait to begin studying with these 3rd-8th graders again.

See you soon.

A LITTLE BIT MORE. . . . . .

We’re leaving the room and this you know

Walking not running is the way to go. (drawing goes here)

This will be fun

          This will be exciting

                   This walking we’ll do

                             Is so inviting.

“Inviting?”, You say.  “What do you mean?

Walking is boring and makes me turn green.” (green little girl)

Who wants to walk when there is running to do.

What fun can I find in following you?

When will we move, shake, rattle, and roll?  (I can see lots of girls shaking)

Where is the prize at the end of this stroll?

Why? Oh why, must I move so slowly,

How do I do it without getting holey?   (a holey child)

We will move, 
      we will shake, 
              we will rattle, 
                     we will roll!

As we move toward the prize of this short stroll.

Now order yourselves in a very straight line,
Follow your leader and please do not whine.

You will walk in line to the lawn at your church
Where a clue is awaiting you on a high perch.

(At this point the girls will line up and go outside of their church.  The clue will be "perched" on something high.  This is where the girls will learn about the first of four Greek words meaning love.  "EROS"

TaaaaaaaaaaaaaaDA

 

This is FUN and oh so HARD

Writing so girls will learn and in the process think they are having fun can be HARD.  But it is so FUN.

Rewrite for the first scavenger hunt continues:

We’re leaving the room and this you know

Walking not running is the way to go. (drawing goes here)

This will be fun

          This will be exciting

                   This walking we’ll do

                             Is so inviting.

“Inviting?”, You say.  “What do you mean?

Walking is boring and makes me turn green.” (green little girl)

Who wants to walk when there is running to do.

What fun can I find in following you?

When will we move, shake, rattle, and roll?  (I can see lots of girls shaking)

Where is the prize at the end of this stroll?

Why? Oh why, must I move so slowly,

How do I do it without getting holey?   (a holey child)

Holey you say so seriously and yet –

That is the quest of this study I bet.

You see our goal is to run

THE BEGINNING

I have FINALLY begun writing the Young Girls' Bible Study for the fall.  I learned last year that they love to go on a scavenger hunt.  So this year we will hunt for the fruit of the Spirit each week. 

A peak at how we will begin the first hunt is below.  The girls loved and I mean loved running from the first clue to the last during our previous studies.  It became a game just to keep them together.  I am excited to lead them again and to learn right along with them.

We’re leaving the room and this you know

Walking not running is the way to go.

This will be fun

          This will be exciting

                   This walking we’ll do

                             Is so inviting.

“Inviting?”, You say. 

“What do you mean?

This walking sounds lame,

Not at all like a game.”

 

THREE GIFTS FOUND IN DIFFICULT PEOPLE

Yesterday was difficult.  I encountered a difficult person.  This difficult person is a family member.  This family member is not always a difficult person.

This morning as I began my quiet time I was drawn to the "Joy Dare Collection" from Ann Voskamp's blog.

The challenge for this day is to write Three Gifts Found in Difficult People.

I love when God shows off and brings all things in my life right back to Himself.

I wrote the following in my quiet time notebook:

3 Gifts found in difficult people

1. prayer - turns me back to Christ - reminds me that I was created for good works (Eph 2:1) and that I should do all things as if for God not for men (Col 3:23).
2. laughter - because sometimes people are so absurdly difficult, the situation becomes hilarious. 
3. lessons learned - the lesson of how not to treat others

So, (I crossed that word out in my notebook, don't know how to do that on her)
I read yesterday that in removing the word "so" from my conversations will help me present myself clearer when I speak. 

My prayer today is:
     through the guidance of the Holy Spirit
             I will seek to see others a Christ does,
                  I will look for the joy and laughter in the hard moments and
                          I will treat others as if they are Christ.

What a lesson I have to share with the Young Girls' Bible Study.

Thank you Ann Voskamp for the reminder to find the gifts.

     https://www.facebook.com/AnnVoskamp
     http://www.aholyexperience.com/

HOW DO YOU LOVE?

Notes taken from a 2005 Bible study - THE PROOF IS IN THE FRUIT - led by Betsy Bird.

There are four Greek words for love:

1. Eros - a self satisfying love
2. Storge - the love of kinship
3. Philia - the love of friendship
4. Agape - a love that seeks the highest good of the other person

In the fall Young Girls' Bible study my plan is to go on a scavenger hunt to teach them the four Greek words for love.  They say, "we love scavenger hunts!"  They love moving, being active.

My prayer is by the end of that evening they will understand the difference between the four and know that above all else God's love is Agape.

Today my examples of the four Greek words for love are:

1. Eros - I love a Sunday nap.
2. Storge - I love my husband, Jeb.
3. Philia - I love Debbie Trussell - my best friend
4. Agape - Only through the love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit can I even pray to love this way and to live out the love of God in me.

I have much studying to do.  This is just the beginning.

How about you?  How do you love?

Please help by responding to the four Greek words.

 

FORGIVENESS FOUND IN THE SONLIGHT

When I think of Saturday I smile.  I did some HARD work.  Physical work.  I enjoyed almost every minute of it.  Near the end of the HARD work, I counted each thing I did.  If you had been inside my head you would have probably yelled - ENOUGH COUNTING ALREADY!!!!!!

A little information about a blue house.  There was a big bad hail storm in the year 2000.  This hail storm hammered a white siding house.  Destroyed one side of the siding and broke numerous windows.  It ruined a perfectly good roof, too.  Picking new siding was exciting.  The color seen on the color board was not the color of the siding when it arrived.  The color on the color board was a gray - a blue gray.  Well, the color, when enough siding for an entire house was delivered was blue.  Oh my, when timidity jumps in and no words come out the house changes from a beat up white house to a blue house.

Also, when a southern town has a very wet winter, green algae/mold will begin to show up on siding of a blue house.  On the white trim of windows and doors it just looks black.

So yesterday I decided it was time to clean up this blue house. I bought an attachment for our garden hose.  I was going to wash down my house with bleach and water.  I sprayed the entire back of my blue house and then waited for a little while.  Nothing really happened.  That's when I decided to just do some HARD work.

Rags, buckets, ladders, bleach, water, and some good physical labor.  And it was good.  I spent almost all of my time praying for people as I thought.  If someone popped into my mind I prayed for them. 

     Dusty, Dusty's mom (she fell Friday and shattered her hip), Tripp, Liz, Jack, Jeb, Lisa, Debbie, Morgan, my Pastor - Jeff, Lorie, momma, Cynthia, Jim, etc, etc, etc.  

And I sang the Fruit of Spirit song by Steve Green a gazillion times.  

And I thanked God for unexpected lessons seen in cleaning out gutters and washing away stains.  I thanked God for the physical abilities of walking, climbing, flexion, extension of all my limbs.  I thanked God for quiet and sweat and thirst and I don't even remember - oh for pinecones that helped steady a ladder.  And I thanked God and smiled when Jeb and Jack came back home and began to help me.

The last side of the blue house that was washed receives the morning sun when it is not cloudy.  It was the easiest to wash.  I was so glad because I was tired.  I thought - the sun dries away the dampness that leads to the mold/algae. The sun takes away the cause of the stains. 

AND that's when I learned a lesson I can share with others. 

It's a picture of how staying in the presence of the Sonlight just makes life better. 

  It was easier to clean the side of the blue house that almost always receives sunlight. 

  I need to stay in the presence of the Son because it will be easier to clean up when I mess up.

  The winter was cloudy/damp.  It was miserable and not fun at times.  But it didn't last.
             I need to remember the cloudy, damp, miserable, not fun times of life will not last.

  Bleach, water and some hard work turned the dirty house back to the blue house.    
             I need to allow the Son to do work in me when forgiveness is needed.
               

I thought and prayed:

     Help me stay in the light of your Son so that when I mess up, and I will, it will not be so difficult

     to be cleaned up.

          Help me when my life is cloudy/damp to not allow the dampness to become a part of me.

Help me to receive the Forgiveness Found in the Sonlight.

 

I have a clean blue house and  I have a story to share with my Young Girls' Bible study in the fall.