just some thoughts

We are gathering supplies to make bags of goods for the homeless. I love this idea. Especially with the cold weather approaching, I can't imagine living in the conditions some people do. I love the idea of helping in any way I can. I may not be able to completely change their circumstances but if I can make it a little bit easier for someone for a day or two, I am happy to help.
As much as I like the idea of helping Baltimore, I am also a firm believer in helping out in my own back yard. I met a homeless couple a few months ago, and had a nice chat with them. I haven't really seen them since, but I do know they are locals, and have been for a quite a few years. I think of them often. Did they get the food they needed? Were they warm last night? I know I woke up freezing this morning because we hadn't turned the heat on last night. Imagine how cold they were!
I also think of a young man Adam and I met last year on the streets of Baltimore. We took the time to buy him a meal, chat with him about his situation, and pray with him. Again, we parted ways and never heard from him again. He was coming up on a court date. He didn't share specifics but did share that the outcome of that meeting would determine his next steps in life. I often think of how it went and where he possibly is now. Is he still on the streets? did he get the help he was needing?
I feel like these acts of kindness speak volumes to people in need. That someone stopped for just a moment in their busy lives and took time to acknowledge them, smile at them, help them just a little bit. It matters. A lot. But what if we took it a step further? What if our goal was not to just perform a random act of kindness to someone in need, but to follow up with them? What if we took the time to chat about where they are in life right now, what their needs are, and take a step to connect them with someone who can help or put what they need in those bags we are collecting for. Or invite them to church? How neat would it be to see the face of someone you helped on Wednesday night at church on Sunday getting a cup of coffee a plate of bagel chips and sitting in the warmth of Gods loving family hearing the good news and being loved right where they are in life?  No judgement. Just love.

What if by showing them Gods love through sharing our stuff (bags) and sharing our "home" (church) with them, they get help physically and spiritually and other doors of opportunity could be opened for bigger changes in their lives. Changes God has been working toward making.

THE BIG SHOE!

So while Millie Moo and I were adventuring in Colorado, we had the opportunity to get up entirely too early and drag our lazy not so morning person booties to a balloon festival.
There I was met with my first and only Dutch Brothers Coffee (Thank You Tyler, for looking out for my caffeinated needs). It was great if you're looking for a rapid sugar/caffeine buzzed high. Which is exactly what I needed for running my bronchitis-y, flat footed, sportless out of shape ass down that hill (twice) to get a shot of that balloon touching the water. Twice. Did I mention I was in the mountains with bronchitis? Yeah. Anyway:

This guy was NUTS! How do you fly without a basket?

and then DIP INTO THE FREEZING LAKE!?

Here you see the Sunshine balloon:

When I saw this I looked at my Uncle John who is irritatingly a morning person (yuck...morning people) and I told him "LOOK! THE SUN IS NOT UP YET! WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING OUT OF BED!?"

Once the sun was "up" I gave him a big hug and said "GOOD MORNING!!"
It was funny, and probably irritated him, but that's okay, because that's what we do.

That was all fun and awesome, and honestly worth waking my sorry tired butt up for. It was a fantastic way to start our day.


Then, that night, when we went back for the glowing balloons, that is where the real memories happened.

Here they don't launch the balloons, they just count down and everyone fires off the balloons at once for an "All Glow" and it's a field of glowing balloons and It is BEAUTIFUL!


When we got to our spot to watch, we were down among the balloons and right next to a particular balloon. Millie was in the stroller and hadn't paid attention to where we were until the countdown for an all glow happened and the "KKSSSSHHHHHH" of the balloons firing off and the blast of heat hitting her face got her attention to where she looked up and saw a
GIANT...GLOWING....SHOE! which the wind caught a hold of and brought tilting right at us....

Needless to say the traumatized 2 year old  grabbed my face and with wide terrified eyes said in a controlled firm tone,

"WE GO HOME. RIGHT NOW....Mommy....HOME....HOME"

we stayed for a few more minutes then left for ice cream.  Every conversation after that went like this:

"What flavor ice cream do you have?"

"BIG SHOE. IT WAS HUGE. HUGE SHOE ALMOST GET ME. BIG. SHOE. IT WAS CREEPY."

"What color is your ice cream?"

"BIG SHOE!"

"How old are you Millie?"

"IT was HUGE! AND IT GET ME! THE BIG SHOE!"


For weeks. she still talks about the big balloon shoe. It sounds more now like a grand adventure she went on, not so much a terrified little kid that was traumatized for life...or at least for the night.

What better way to share this moment with Adam than revisit the big shoe...though it was not a balloon shoe, it was at a local farm and a slide, but when she saw it and immediately started with the "BIG SHOE" story, her little face was lit up in amazement that there was another one...and this one was PURPLE!

Going through adolescence and being a teenager has to be like being handed a transformer toy, without the instructions, and being told "okay, now transform this (vehicle) into it's robot form" and then walking away.

Some kids would get it a little easier than others. Some kids would struggle and get overwhelmed and confused.
"I know this thing is supposed to transform into a robot...but how do I get there?? what are the next moves? What is it going to look like?"

Isn't that true for transitioning from being a kid to being a teenager...soon to be grown up?
You know the end result is adult-hood but there really isn't instructions, your body, mind, emotions, hormones, everything is going caraaazay! and even the most "informed" kids can feel alone in this journey.
Of course there is the Bible. Life's instructions book. right? but for some people it's like handing them the instructions, but it feel like its all in a foreign language.  that's not very helpful. eventually their spiritual growth will help with the scriptures being clearer, but there is still that time when the bible stories we grow up with start to come to life and have deeper meaning and there's a transitional learning curve going on.

kids shouldn't have to go through that feeling like they are alone in this confusing time.

I hope like crazy that we will have the kinds of relationships with our kids that are open enough to discuss these things. That I'll be able to "translate" the "instruction book" when it gets confusing or unclear and that our kids will find us approachable and open to hearing anything they have concerns about.

just some food for thought after talking about helping the teens with identifying in Christ.

#BELONG

Adam and I will be celebrating 11 amazing years of marriage this year. This month actually.
When we were dating and just out of high school, it started to press on our hearts that some day we would be youth leaders. I think we both knew we had a little bit of growing up to do first, and then there was the matter of, you know, finding a church that had a need for leaders...and while we did serve as volunteer/leaders at our church for a little while, and loved every minute of that taste of ministry, we were moved across the country and didn't see an opportunity again.

Here we are. God moved us to a new neighborhood. We've been hear a year, we have found a church to call home and we are getting plugged in. At first I wasn't even thinking "youth group" when I was looking for a place to get plugged in. Honestly I was looking for a place to escape my chaos at home. A place to be quiet, and grow spiritually. I had been involved in the women's ministry at Fusion before and that was the logical place to start. When I found the "crocheting for Jesus" group I about died of nerdy excitement! combining my love for creating yarny things with a ministry!? And the other women were older, so I had this opportunity (expectation) of some spiritual mentoring. I had envisioned these quiet evenings where we ole' bitties sat around crocheting and talking about life, and God and it would be relaxing and quiet and peaceful, and quiet (did I mention quiet?) and I would get a BREAK! The fact that they (very unofficially, because it's a church group) called themselves the Happy Hookers was just icing on this little cake of yarn covered happiness.

What I didn't know...was that the call of the youth ministry down the hall during my quiet, relaxing night of crocheting would eventually steal my heart. I had such a hard time walking past the youth room to the Happy Hooker room (seriously...the name never gets old). In fact, the first night I went, I found myself in the youth room standing there, watching the kids and listening to them, and feeling such joy in just standing there. I probably looked like a crazy creepy person just standing there, bag of yarn and hooks in hand, silently staring..watching. (yes... that does scream creepy...especially since I was standing right in the middle of it all..rather than in a corner or off to the side) I didn't know at the time, what that meant for me, I honestly kind of shrugged it off, said "too bad it's the same night as crocheting.." and walked on to the other room where yarn, hooks and quiet awaited. (Just a side note...the "Happy Hookers" group was not what I'd expected, it was not quite what I'd hoped for).

It took me a couple of months...but at last, I finally couldn't fight the pull down that hall anymore. I don't know if the discontentment with the Happy Hookers was the Spirit's way of moving me along, but the tugs on the heartstrings couldn't be ignored any longer. Adam too, was beginning to feel them, so...we took the plunge.

Just a few weeks after initially introducing ourselves, partaking in a leaders meeting to "just see if it'll be something we want to do" and attending a few nights of youth saturated chaos...another leaders meeting (where I'm pretty sure they were testing us...the "horror" stories could have easily scared us away...instead it made us even more excited about being part of it) and last night I got my youth sweatshirt. I know to the other leaders, it may not have been that big of a deal. I had said "wow I love this shirt" and they happened to have an extra one they threw my way...but to me it's like I'm finally doing what has been on my heart. It took TEN YEARS to find a church to serve in like this and I know the timing is just right. I don't think I could have been a good leader during those years of child rearing....but now that that chapter is closing...this new chapter is opening and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do.

I finally #BELONG!

KEY WOMEN

AnneVoskamp wrote a marvelous blog post describing this idea of a movement among women in the church. This Idea about being Key Women.
She begins by describing a scene we can all relate to. A neighbor stops by unexpectedly.  All she can think of is the “Mount Rushed LaundryMore” , the unmade bed,  her unkempt style  of  “rooster tailed ,comckamamie hair” and the “rumpled t-shirt” she’s wearing.   a part of her life that is so not “Pintrest pretty” is being exposed  and it’s quite embarrassing and humbling.  Then it “hits her”
She writes:
I have no idea why all us neighbours and women down the street and across the table keep holding each other to a standard of perfection instead of letting us all be held by the arms of grace.
No idea why don’t we call a cease-fire to the constant women wars, stop the missile volley of judgement, subtle and not so subtle, that we hurl across the playgrounds and church foyers and back fences and front porches and screens at each other?
No idea why it’s taken me so long and why I keep forgetting:
Judging others is a blindfold that blinds us to our own grime and blinds us to the grace which others are as eligible and entitled to as we are.
If I have loved breathing in grace for me, how can I deny you the same oxygen?
Who of us isn’t a hypocrite in metamorphosis? Who of us is who he wants to be — yet?
Earth is our chrysalis. We all can get to fly away to glory, a loosening of slippery bindings. (It is in the space of aloneness that the caterpillar has space to grow wings. Never fear the aloneness — it’s a way you’re given a way to fly.) There are unlikely wings unfolding unseen everywhere.
We can’t notice in days what is happening in years — there can be this becoming someone different, someone remade. 
We need Key Women in our lives who emancipate us from crushing expectations. 
Key Women who unlock the courtrooms where we’re judged and assessed and weighed on these scales that feel like millstones around our necks, Key Women who believe that 
we can change,
 things can change, 
kids can change, 
minds can change, 
the world can change.
There could be this rising of Key Women who are soul abolitionists, who end the enslavement of women to the self-appointed judges, Key Women who unlock and unleash women to transform into their own unique calling and giftedness.
 Because — if you aren’t encouraging women to live out their particular calling, you may just be idolizing a particular idealized form of yourself.
There could be Key Women who turn to their sisters and unlock everything with their own anthem coming like a freedom song:
I won’t judge you for dishes in your sink and shoes over your floor and laundry on your couch.
I won’t judge you for choosing not to spend your one life weeding the garden or washing the windows or working on organizing the pantry.
I won’t judge you for 
the size of your waist,
 the flatness, bigness, cut or color of your hair,
 the hipness or the matronliness of your clothes,
 and I won’t judge whether you work at a stove, 
a screen, 
a store,
 a steering wheel,
 a sink
 or a stage.
I won’t judge you for where you are on your road, won’t belittle your offering, your creativity, your battle, your work.
The key to the future of our communities, our culture, the church is whether there are Key People — people who will not imprison with labels and boxes but will unlock with key words, with key acts of freeing.
There could be Key Women who link arms with their sisters and say we will be the few Key Women:Key Women release you by not judging your mothering, your cooking, your cleaning, your clothing, your kids.
Key Women liberate you from cages and boxes and echo chambers in your head.
Key Women free you to be your best you, your unbound you, your beautiful you.
We are not here to be perfect. We are here to be real – to let Christ be real in us.
Like there’s this movement of women who have a key to open up our doors and come in —- and let us go free.


This is my desire. I want to have these kinds of relationships, to be known as the kind of woman described here, to be part of this movement. Perhaps moving to this new area and being in the kind of neighborhood that is a little out of my comfort zone is the beginning of something. Like I was put here to make waves.

Wrestling God.

I wish I could say that wrestling with the decision of "shall I stay or shall I go" with our church started after we moved, but I'd be lying. The thoughts have been rolling around in my heart and brain and keeping me awake late night for nearly a year now or at least since the first time the elders announced that our church was at risk of closing it's doors. Nearly every leaders meeting after was about how to "save the church".  This wrestling match has gotten more intense since we've moved, but really, it feels like the worlds longest WWE Monday Night RAW Smack Down World Championship Belt match.
 I have not felt full peace about staying. I'm sure a lot of it has had to do with feeling burnt out as the women's ministry "leader". Maybe it was feeling like our church was lacking stability. Was the offering enough? Would we be open next month? I started feeling like we were all just sitting around waiting for someone to say "okay we're done". That sort of inconsistency was draining.  Or that we are now living an hour away and getting up and everyone fed dressed and out the door so early has proven itself far more difficult than we'd anticipated. I didn't want to leave just because I'm not a morning person. 
While I didn't feel great about staying, I felt totally worse about leaving. I knew God had me there in my "role" for a reason, and I wanted very much to obey Him. Not only that but these people are our family. We have been part of this family for 6 years now. We have been through so much, for better and for worse. Births, Death, Marriages, Divorces, Healing physically and spiritually....I truly feel like we've seen it all within our little community. I couldn't bear to leave that. Mainly for fear that we'd lose touch and probably see very little if any of our friends again. Life happens after all. I wasn't willing to let go. So I didn't. 
We remained white-knuckled tight to our church. Transitioning from a 15 minute commute to an hour commute every Sunday morning, and it sucked, but we persevered. There were some weekends this summer however that we didn't make it. It's summer time after all. We signed up for VBS (because what is summertime without a little church hopping and getting rid of your kids for a few hours every day for a whole week!). Naturally that included a visit to the church, you know, to make sure they weren't going to teach our kids to bite the heads off chickens while dancing in the isles with snakes or anything else weird. We also had "vacation-y" weekends and even a weekend where we chose to stay home and install a split-rail fence... by our selves...on what had to have been the hottest weekend of the year (that was a fun ride that left bruises all over my legs, sunburns everywhere else and sore muscles in places I forgot existed, but that's a whole different story).
We were, however, not committed to leaving.  I continued my restless nights of debating in my heart what God was leading us to do. We felt pulled toward our new community. God has been good to us with providing, not only a wonderful amazing neighborhood and school, but also friendly Christian neighbors, right next door, with kids our kids ages who seemed to connect at first meeting and spent the whole summer trading houses, running through sprinklers and dancing in the isles (in a good way) at VBS getting so excited about the Good News of Jesus, and having sleepovers. What a blessing! 
There was still a nagging tug at my heartstrings to stay connected to our church. We'd promised everyone we weren't going anywhere just because we moved. There are two other families in our church from our (new) area. If they could commute, we could. I was committed to ministry duties. Oh God  help me figure out what to do here! 

This last Sunday, while we were "staycationing" with Adam's parents, and missing church, they announced that at the end of September, Beacon Hill Church was closing it's doors. Forever. 
I didn't know until Wednesday when I received an e-mail from our pastor about it. I was a bit shocked, but at the same time, I knew it was coming. It was a matter of time, but I knew it was going to happen. My heart filled with emotions. 
Relief. I was relieved because now I don't have to wrestle with this decision about staying or going. God literally closed those doors for us. Relieved that I didn't have to try to decide what to do with the women's ministry this fall. I truly got burned out. I had nothing left to offer these women. There was Peace too. 
Sad. Sad that the answer for us was to shut the doors. I didn't pray for that, though we probably wouldn't have left otherwise. The burden of guilt over leaving was too heavy, we'd rather stay. 
Disappointed. I feel like God shut our doors, not because we didn't have money, or attendance...but simply because we were disobedient. We are called to be active in our communities. What kind of footprint did we leave? I honestly don't believe the community around our church will even notice we're gone. The church we were renting space from will notice. The members of Beacon Hill...obviously. But the surrounding community?? Probably not. We simply were not active. Tim did an amazing job discipling us, but when it came time to send us out, we simply disobeyed. The church became a "safe place" that we went to to see our friends and fellowship together. There was no outreach. There was no serving our community. Not as a church anyway. Just huddling up in our cozy little comfort zones and simply not listening to God calling us out. So...what should we expect to happen? How disappointed I am in myself for not listening to what God had been screaming in my heart. "GO! Be in your community! Do MY work! Connect with these people!" 
Looking back I see how much time I wasted wrestling in the night, praying over and over and over, and feeling so frustrated with our church and ready to just "be done" and "move on". I was so restless in my fight to stay idle. How stupid of me, and how frustrating for God.
I clearly see it now. God wants us here. In our own backyard. We have a challenge ahead of us in looking for a new church to call home. I have a good start though with the two churches we visited over the summer (no snakes or headless chickens!). I feel like we can visit them again without feeling like we are being disloyal to our Beacon Hill family. We can go with a different perspective, a different set of eyes. Open hearts.
I am excited about this next step. I can't wait to see where we are planted. Adam has a heart for youth ministry. I have a heart for women's ministry. Maybe it's something completely different! Or maybe God just wants us to be bench warmers, to get our hearts right, to get a clearer picture of what He has in mind for us and getting connected with HIM.  Either way, I am tapping out and ready to (really) listen and obey.  

Being a Woman of God - Doing Womanhood well

I recently was able to attend Beth Moore's "Living Proof" simulcast. Ok...more like 4 months ago...but that's still pretty recent, right?
It was such a great message, I keep finding myself revisiting the notes I took and soaking in the wisdom she shared. So I thought, Why not share it with you?
Her message was a 7 point message....what I'm going to do is share my notes and try my best to share her message with you, through my own words (so it may not actually be a 7 point message). Hopefully I will be able to communicate some of  these fine points almost as well as she did. Consider this my "disclaimer" that these ideas were not my own... I wish I had this kind of wisdom to share. Maybe some day I will reach a point in my spiritual maturity to share original thoughts that will motivate and touch other womens lives as Beth Moore has done.

At any rate...here we go:

Being a Woman of God- Doing Womanhood Well

We are one gathering of many women yearning for God to speak.

In Acts 16:6-15 we see this picture of Paul and Silas traveling through Galatia. The Holy Spirit had prevented them from stopping and talking to people...kind of like a "nope...not yet...keep going..." kind of thing. They knew they were traveling to spread the Gospel. Paul has a vision to go to Macedonia. Knowing it was God leading him to share the gospel there...he obeyed and they went...

Here we're going to pick up in vs 13...and we learn about the FIRST European convert: 


"On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there. 14 One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. 15 She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we agreed."It's significant that the first convert was a woman, and that the Holy Spirit kept Paul from spreading the good news until they came to this gathering of Women. We are valued. 

I feel like we are meant to gather together. We, as women are supposed to come together and be women of God and seek Him out!


Jesus changes the story of EVERY woman he meets! 

In the New Testament, every kind of woman is represented at one point or another...rich, poor, healthy, ill, mother, daughter, married, single, widowed, prostitutes...every kind. 

In all their differences, they had 2 things in common.

1. they met Jesus
2. He changed them...they were never the same again.

This shows us that it is IMPOSSIBLE for me (and YOU) to not qualify to have an encounter with Christ.

Luke 1:45 (NIV)

" Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Every time you step into Gods word..."Blessed is she who believes"

Acts 1:24 - "Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen."

Jesus is the "heart knower"
He knows our hearts... Everything I am feeling, what I'm going through...he already knows...he KNOWS me!

Isaiah 61:1

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
  because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,

We all  go through moments in our lives when we are just hurt, and are broken. It's okay to bound up those wounds and allow yourself to heal...but sometimes to heal your bound-hurt heart, you have remove the bandages, open up your heart to Him and trust Him-allow Him to heal you!

T. had to (unexpectedly) get a shot...as any traumatized three year old would, he put that band aid on and didn't take it off for a week...as a result, because he was so busy protecting his arm and holding onto that hurt, the band aid caused a rash and irritated the skin around the area he got the little prick for his shot. He needed to unbound that "wound" and let it breathe and be healed. Keeping it bound did him more harm.


Jesus Wants Women to Know WHO She IS and What She is NOT.

Our circumstances and hurts do not define us. Just because I am feeling defeated in a situation, doesn't mean I am defeated, or a failure. 
Hold on to the truth of who you are in Christ.

Sometimes a Woman Needs a Clean Sweep to Find What She's Missing.

Luke 15 (Parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and prodigal son)

Think of something that means a lot to you that you have lost and would like back....
Your virginity? Dignigy? Wishing you were as carefree as you used to be?
Trade your virginity for purity - they are not the same thing. Be pure in heart and soul and faith. 
Trade your Care-free for Courage!
Your dignity is not something someone can take away! your dignity belongs to Christ! 

Or maybe you fall into this category: I'm missing something but I don't know what. With the noise and clutter in life, I can't tell what it is. 

There comes a time when you just have to sweep it away so God can get to you. Sweep and you shall find! 

A Woman's Joy is Not the Same Without Girl Friends to Share It.  Tas Philas! 

Lets look at the story of the Lost Coin (Luke 15: 8-10)
The woman called her GIRL FRIENDS to celebrate with her over her lost coin being found! (vs 9)
The greek words used in this verse for "friends" is Tas Philas...meaning "GIRL FRIENDS"

I lost the back of M.'s earring for the 3rd or  4th time. This time I'd noticed it while we were in her room and I'd just finished vacuuming. Fantastic. This particular earring back protects her head from being poked by the super sharp earring they'd pierced her ears with. I didn't have a replacement for it. I searched everywhere. I even dumped the dustbin from the vacuum to sift through the nastiness I'd just vacuumed up. It wasn't until the next day when (ironically) I was sweeping the floor in the living room getting ready to vacuum that I happened to find it right there among the cheerios and crayons! What are the odds of finding this little tiny earring back? You'd have to see my cluttered dusty floor to really get the picture of what a miracle it was! I jumped for joy! Literally Like a nutball, doing a little dance singing "Praise Jesus I found it!".  I almost called my best friend over it! almost. I wanted to share the joy in finding it! of course I didn't call her because I stopped myself thinking it was too silly to call her over such a simple thing. I missed out on that shared joy! I later told her about this and she still got excited and said "you totally should have called me! I would have danced with you!" 

The point in this is that we are wired...uniquely created!!... to share our joy with our sisters. We need our girlfriends!

In these current technology saturated days with social media, emails and texting, we have so many contacts and so few connections (comrades).  

We are not connecting the dots between our joy deficit  and our friend deficit. there is a direct correlation between joy and friends to share it with! 

Joy is Not complete unless it is shared! 

Philippians 2:2 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

1 John 1:3-4  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

2 John 1:12 12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

Posting our Joy on Facebook and Twitter is not the same as meeting with our friends face to face and sharing our joy. 

So why do we have a hard time doing this? Why do we not come together and share our joy and support each other? 

We are threatened by other women. we are allowing ourselves to fall into this pattern of competing against eachother, comparing ourselves to other women feeding our insecurities...
insecurity pokes a hole in your heart!
STOP COMPETING! STOP COMPARING! JUST STOP. IT. NOW!
hypersensitivity is poisoning our friendships! 
STOP IT!
Christ our savior is BIGGER than any of our insecurities! 

Proverbs 24:17
17 "Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
    when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,"

We need to fight FOR one another. Together, not against each other. 

Philippians 1:27 -" 27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit,[a] striving together as one for the faith of the gospel"


Every Woman is Well Able to Share How Jesus is Changing Her Story

2 Timothy 3:16-17
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

While it is true that we can be saved through His word alone, it doesn't stop there.

For you to be equipped to be a Woman of God, you have to be in His Word and have a relationship with Him.

You are commissioned here and now. Don't wait for that specific moment to come to you to serve. serve now..wherever you are in life. Serve God Now! 
When you encounter Jesus, it doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, where you've been, what you're going through now or what you've gone through in the past. You are woman enough! You are woman enough to be touched by God, be used by God, to serve Him. 
Would you believe God for a miricle? For Him to reach down in you and grab your strongholds? 

Are you a woman of God? Can people see it? 

 RESPOND!
I am not here to just receive, I am here to respond to what He is calling me to do!

Look back Lydia in Acts...The Lord opened her heart to respond! There's a difference between hearing and responding...she responded!

Jeremiah 7:24-
24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.

We can either pay attention - RESPOND- and move forward in our lives, or we can move backward!

What will you do with what God does today?