I had the incredible opportunity to gather with some lovely ladies and begin a new Bible study, one I’ve never done before, called “He Speaks To Me” by Priscilla Shirer. I’ve done several of her studies so I didn’t hesitate joining this one, I mostly miss the accountability and the fellowship with these ladies; it’s been one year.

One full year since we’ve crammed ourselves, elbow to elbow, on the couches and along the floor of Deborah’s living room.

I was surprised, and at the same time, perfectly delighted, to learn that we had two young ladies in our group last night that hadn’t been in a Ladies Bible Study ever before. That was such a blessing! I loved that I got to be a part of that!

If you’re wondering if you should go to a Ladies Bible Study . . . I don’t know.

I can’t answer that for you.

As a girl that loves Jesus, loves learning God’s Word, and who just really, really loves other women, it’s gonna be a definite YES from me! But only you can decide that. Do as you feel the Lord is calling you to do. You definitely should be in a group or facilitating one.

Here’s the thing, it’s lonely out there, ladies! And it’s not because we’re living in a man’s world, it’s because we’re living in satans!

We can trust the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding . . .

We can pray till we’re out of breath . . .

We can have the faith the size of a mustard seed . . .

But ladies, if we’re not actually making God’s Holy Word an actual priority (and truly, the biggest priority) in our daily lives, then we’re missing out! Look, I get it! We try to shoulder all the responsibilities: jobs, spouses, children, schooling, errands, grocery shopping, house cleaning, etc. It’s easy to get burnt out. It’s doubley-easy for that to happen when all too often we take care of number one – last. There’s this movie out that I watched one time (I’d never do that, it’s of a secular nature 😉 ) called Talledega Nights (go ahead and judge and tell my Pastor . . . I’ll wait . . . ) and there’s a funny line that came from it that says, “If you’re not first, you’re last!” It became a really big quote and it’s pretty popular now. Here’s the line with that . . . it’s delicate line to balance . . . because in a world full of all these self-help books and feel good genres, all we hear is how we need to put ourselves first and how if we don’t take care of ourselves first, then we can’t take care of anyone else. If you’re not first, you’re last. But the thing is, the way we should be taking care of ourselves, we often aren’t. Ladies we want some “me time”, we want to hang out with the girls or read a book or have a spa day or get mani/pedis or go shopping or sleep . . . what if the “me time” we really need to put ourselves first is to fill up with the living water? If we want to get that life back into us . . . isn’t He the only one who can truly give us rest? Sure, I’m not saying don’t do the other things, but I think more often than not we’re looking for those other things to make us happy . . . and those fingernails are gonna get chipped on something dumb by the end of the day. (Just sayin’)

One of the first things that our friend, Rhonda, mentioned last night was making daily time with the Lord every day and how important it was and I’m so glad she put that emphasis on that (did I mention we had two newbies in class? They needed to hear that, even some of the other ladies maybe needed to as well). We carry a lot of responsibilities. We should care enough about ourselves, our families, and our callings to make ourselves enough of an effort to make the Lord a priority. We need private, daily reading time with the Lord everyday because He speaks to us through His word . . . The Bible wasn’t written to give us a frustrating binding of words we can’t pronounce, measurements of tabernacles, and a revelation of an ending that leaves us overwhelmed, sobbing, and rejoicing. He gave us His word; to give us His word . . . it was written for our instruction,.

I’m so thankful I get to be a part of this beautiful tribe of women! They’re incredible and it takes a village . . . you seriously need a community of women coming together to keep each other accountable. One needs the other, and the other will grow tired without the ‘more’, do it together. It doesn’t matter which method you choose to do your Bible study (I say if you’re not doing it at Deborah’s you’re doing it wrong – but I’m biased). Seriously, whether you’re meeting a coffee shop, at your church, at each others house, in your local library, a park, online, or somewhere else . . . it’s about coming together and being united. It’s up to us, ladies. We’ll let the men do their thing but we have to (HAVE TO) lock arms, put aside our difference, encourage each other, throw down our crowns and unite so we can stand at the gates of hell redirecting traffic for our King of Kings!

And if you need small circle, come to mine. And if you need a church family, come to mine. We’re messy, super messy. We fight and make up. We assume and make mistakes. We laugh till we cry and laugh till we pee (for those of us who have had the babies). We even ugly cry and barely hold it together (sometimes we don’t hold it together). It’s messy. But we’re real family. We do life together. We stand with you, beside you. When you fall down, we help you up (except me, I’ll probably help you up and knock you back down b/c I’m sweet and I’m funny and sarcastic). We just love on each other, but want each other to succeed and more importantly, we want to make disciples because we love Jesus. We should all be helping to equip women to know God’s word, providing resources and the support they need.

I don’t know where you’re coming from, or how you’re feeling but what I do know is you can point people to Christ and you can do it confidently. You just need to lock arms with other women walking the same walk . . . working to grow in their faith and working to advance the kingdom because they want to effectively reach others for Christ our Lord!

Y’all I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed.

Last night as I was leaving the study a friend asked me if I wasn’t writing anymore. I sat and thought for a minute and I hadn’t been. I told her I hadn’t. The biggest reason (in my mind) is because of the terrible arm pain I’ve been suffering with since August, it’s gradually gotten worse (that’s a big hot mess of a story). But as I got home and thought about it, I just wept. Because really . . . there’s more to it. Not only have I been in terrible pain (and no, motrin doesn’t help, so suffer I do), I also had two other things thrown in the mix. One is that I’ve struggled with a feeling of anger or resentment, just uneasiness. Not necessarily meanness, but definitely feels like bitterness – b/c someones tried to hack into my accts and it feels def very personal. Let me tell you when you get prompts that someone has tried logging into your instagram, facebook, emails and website . . . it’s no longer a “hacking” – it’s personal. I prayed that He would just stop whoever it is, that whatever issue they have will cease or whatever is going on will stop. One acct I understand errors, but multiple accts is personal and if someone is upset enough with you, they’ll do anything to make you miserable apparently. And that they have. So I’ve had to change my password numerous times. It’s depressing. The third thing was the day I realized I hadn’t read my Bible reading plan in nearly a week and I felt anxiety and shame and guilt . . . that’s when I stopped. I realized at that point I no longer was going to finish blogging through and would read as I sat down to and felt led to. I was angry about the arm, the hacker/stalker I’m dealing with, the Bible reading thing (on top of everything) and I just stopped reading any word from Him. I did that for a few weeks (no, I’m not kidding). HAD I TOLD ACCOUNTABILITY FRIENDS that I was feeling the feelings of shame/guilty/anxiety/anger over the attempted hacks and the Bible issue – they would have prayed with me. They would have pointed me to scripture. They would have pointed out the spirits that weren’t holy and some that were prideful. HAD I told my friends, I wouldn’t have struggled so much in silence.

Life in community is important.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every
good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17