Show and Tell: On My Mind

Monday, October 22, 2012

Show and Tell: On My Mind

So, what's on my mind?

Last week, our ladies' Bible study group finished up True Woman 101: Divine Design, by Mary Kassian & Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It was a rich and powerful study, and to a woman, everyone who completed the study, wished it could've gone on longer. Scripturally sound and deeply insightful, it gave fresh voice & vision to topics and passages that have long been on my heart... and knit them all together in such a challenging and relevant way for women of our generation. If your church has a regular ladies' Bible study, I'd encourage you to request this study as an excellent resource for a future session. I personally can't wait for True Woman 102, or 201-- whatever comes next! I hope this great study will be followed up with many more biblically-faithful, challenging messages for women in this generation.
Submission-- it's a word fraught with misconceptions.
This week at our church, we're starting a new bible study about prayer. I'll be facilitating/leading it, teaching from Scripture and leaning on "greats" like Andrew Murray. After studying more last night about the connection between fruitful prayer & abiding in Christ, this morning I woke up with "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross" in my head... love that hymn!
Last week, I did the great semi-annual household seasonal clothing exchange. (It's been two years exactly since I had all of our kids' clothing in one place; while it was quite an undertaking, I am so so so so so so so so so very glad to have these things more sorted & organized.) While I may share details of my own approach/method at some future point, I definitely don't have time to do that right now. Here's someone (a large-family-mom) who HAS recently shared tips/ideas about changing out kids' clothes.
One afternoon this week, I looked on my banking app and was shocked to find that our balance was $70,243,856.00. I had fun being a $70 millionaire and dreaming up ways to give and use that much money, until they corrected our balance that evening, back to its normal level with not near so many numbers. :)
Yesterday in church, I was overwhelmed with emotion as I remembered and prayed for friends and contacts who live in difficult places, countries where it is difficult, illegal, and/or potentially life-threatening to live as a disciple of Jesus. We are to remember those who are imprisoned!
In an increasingly disconnected generation, what are Christians to do with this whole "love your neighbor" idea? Here's a great article about practical, literal neighboring.
We have to fight HARD to keep our kiddos and ourselves from being overcommitted. Here's an article from Sheila about that very thing. As I came back to America last year after nearly 6 years away, this was probably one of the top three most shocking things I noticed about our American culture. We say "no" a lot... but many (most?) of the people I see seem stressed, overcommitted, and lack relational connection in their lives... and a lot of it has to do with commitments made for very young children.