Women’s Ministry

Resolution for Women – Hopes and Fears

September 5, 2012 by girlfriendscoffeehour

If your husband were to describe your marriage to a stranger, what do you think he would say? If he were to describe you, as his wife, to this stranger, what do you think he would say?

Last night, Girlfriends Coffee Hour hosted a conference call with two women who have both been married 30+ years. In today’s society, 30 years is an amazing feat! Together these two women shared much wisdom! I would like to reiterate what was shared on this call because it just fits perfectly with this chapter of The Resolution for Women.

The keys to a successful marriage:

Jesus has to be the foundation. Without Him, our foundation will not be secure and stable.
Choosing is critical to a successful marriage. Choosing to love him, respect, and encourage him, on a daily basis. Choosing to see the best in him. Choosing to always provide for him, and be there for him.
Remembering that marriage is a COVENANT. There is no room for the word “divorce” in your vocabulary! “No matter what, I will choose to love and to stay!” Divorce is NOT an option!
Mutual respect
Never taking each other too seriously. Being able to laugh with each other.
Dating at least 2 times a month to keep the romance alive.
Know each others “love language”.
Spend time in the Word, and in Prayer. This is the glue that will hold your marriage together.
Love Unconditionally
Show your husband respect.
Encourage your husband.
Support your husband in every way.
Pray for your husband.
NEVER speak badly about your husband to others. EVER!

This was an amazing call last night, and I was very blessed by the words of wisdom that were shared by both of our Guest Speakers!

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In this chapter of Resolution for Women, we are discussing our husbands Hopes and Fears. The two fears that were mentioned in this chapter were “Fear of being inadequate” and “Fear of being controlled. I’m not going to spend a lot of time going over the details of each of these fears, because it’s all available to you in the book. But, what I am going to focus on today are some statements that were shared in this chapter that stood out to me. I’d like to reiterate these statements that Priscilla mentioned, to help us remain focused on areas that will benefit our ability to fulfill our husbands.

I want to start by asking a question mentioned on page 194, but in my own words: “What would your husband do differently if he knew he couldn’t lose your love and respect, no matter what he did?”

Would he be able to be free to do what he’s always wanted to do? Or would he be held back by his fear of what you would think of him?

Would he be assured of your encouragement and support? Would he know without a doubt that you would support him and inspire him to do even greater things? What do you think it would do for him emotionally if you were to be 100% supportive of his dream?

As Priscilla says, “Only one way to find out.”

Your husband needs to know that you trust him. He needs to know that you believe that he is capable, honorable, and worthy of your attention and admiration. He needs to know that you believe in him despite his inadequacies. He needs to know that you are praying for him. He needs to know that your expectations of him are not higher than they should be! None of us are perfect, and we all have inadequacies. Ask yourself how it feels (or would feel) if your husband did not support your dream. Put yourself in his shoes, and think about what YOU would need from him…and then give exactly that to him in support of his dream.

Maybe your husband hasn’t always made the right choices. Maybe he isn’t the best with money. Maybe he hasn’t been the best role model to your children. But even so, YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT HIM! You can resolve to be a better encourager. You can become better at affirming him, supporting him, and respecting him. If this is an area that you struggle with, seek counseling from your Pastor, or a Christian Counselor to help re-establish this trust and confidence in him, and to become more of his cheerleader than someone who constantly puts him down.

You are the helpmeet God created for your husband. God created YOU to be the one who shows respect, love, honor and encouragement to your husband. If this doesn’t come easy for you in your own marriage, then seek God for His wisdom and direction. Ask God into your marriage if He isn’t a part of it already. Pray for your husband. Ask God to help him in the areas that he is weak, or needs wisdom. PRAYER WORKS Ladies! Prayer works MUCH BETTER than nagging does, any day of the week!! 🙂

These ladies on last nights conference call shared much wisdom with us. After 30+ years of marriage, they still go out on dates. They still hold hands. He still opens the door for her. He still puts his arm around her when they sit together. They still laugh together. They pray together. They trust each other. They both respect their husbands.

What can you do today, right now, to start showing your husband the respect and honor that he so strongly desires? To feel like a real man? I want to reiterate what Priscilla shared in this chapter on how you can start making the necessary changes to fulfill your husband….today:

Start with just one day. 24 hours.
REFUSE to allow yourself to correct him, or offer any unsolicited advice, or criticize his choices.
Go to the restaurant HE wants.
Let the kids wear the clothes HE picked out, even if they don’t match!!

Here a few of my own:

Don’t criticize his driving.
ASK for his opinion and then listen to it!
Don’t put down his family in front of others.
Don’t disrespect him at home, or in front of others; especially in front of the children!
Have a good meal on the table when he gets home.
Thank him for being a hard worker and taking care of the family financially.
Thank him for being such a good dad.
Tell him what a great lover he is.
Tell him what a great husband he is.
Tell him how handsome he is.
Tell him you love him every single day.
Kiss him hello and goodbye, every day.
Tell him how proud you are to be his wife.

These are just few suggestions. I know there are plenty of books and online sites that are great tools to use to find ways to encourage your husband. Focus on the Family has some great articles on this subject!! Take the time to look it up, and then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! 🙂 I know without a doubt your husband will appreciate it, and you will begin to see changes in him that are for the better! And that’s a promise!

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Let’s Pray:

Father, thank You so much for the husband You have given each one of us. Help us to be the kind of wife that he needs every day. Help us to be the perfect helpmeet that You created us to be. In Jesus’ Name, AMEN!

Your Assignment:

In the comment section below, list 3 things that you LOVE about your husband, and then tonight when you are alone with him, tell him exactly what you have shared here. I KNOW he will appreciate it!!

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After you have commented below, go back to our Online Bible Study Group on Facebook to see what our Daily Activity is. If you do not yet belong to our OBS Facebook group, and would like to, please send an email to: GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

We’ll send you the details needed to get you into this group!

Don’t forget to stop by Craig’s blog to see what the guys are up to with The Resolution for Men.

www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Be blessed!

Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: bible study, Encourage, family, foundation, God, Home Building, Love, Love and Respect, marriage, proverbs 14:1, resolutions, Respect, Support, women's bible studies

Resolution for Women: Marriage Proposal

September 4, 2012 by Megan Smidt

I was so excited when I logged on to Facebook this morning to see that a very good friend of mine got engaged over the holiday weekend. HOW EXCITING…. right?!?!??!

I noticed yesterday that she had started pinning things like bouquet designs and wedding dresses on Pinterest… so I did have a hunch, but seeing it on my Facebook homepage made it real. She is about to live a wonderful season of planning and prepping…. designing her special day that she has dreamed of since she was a young girl. As I read today’s chapter, I wondered if anyone would be having the real-deal conversation with her like Priscilla’s friend had with her so many years ago.

“Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

Believe me, ladies….. when I was a little girl twirling in my bedroom fantasizing about my wedding day, I never dreamed of having 5 kids at the altar along with my 2nd husband! YIKES!!! Not what dreams are made of, right? Well, before Craig and I even said “I do” we had gone through more in the year and a half we dated than most couples go through in their whole lifetime of marriage! In fact, to this day, I have friends who come to be at the blossoming of a new, blended family relationship for advice because they saw what we lives for so many years and how hard it was and want me to answer for them “So…… has it been worth it?”

Wether you are in your first marriage, second, third or fourth……. your spouse must come first and they must intentionally get your very best or it will just not work. You can not give your kids, family or friends that top spot under God Almighty! Once Craig and I understood this balance and started living our life this way, everything in our relationship came into focus and our entire household was positively effected.

No matter what stage of life, or marriage, we are in, we all want to be fulfilled. We all want our deepest needs to be met and our husband wants this same thing. As Priscilla points out, “He may not be fulfilling his side of the bargain at the moment. But remember, this book is not about him. The reality is, you cannot change him. But you can pinpoint some changes in yourself, and then you can bring that new resolve to your marriage. You can be faithful. That much you can do.”

You may not WANT to do it, but you really need to do it anyway. God calls you to do it. You answer to Him above all else… and He calls us to act and live above our wants as we are not of this world.

I have a story to share that is not a-typical for second marriages, especially when there are children involved.

After the first few years of our marriage, Craig and I were not doing well as we let our house and our lives be led by fear. Craig was not putting me first (after God) because he was scared of his ex-wife and what she might do if he ever stood up to her or “rocked the boat.” This was killing our marriage because not only was I the primary caregiver for all the kids, but I had no voice and no rights. He would give-in to her requests even when it was not in the kids’ or our family’s best interests just to avoid her anger or her wrath. Slowly, it made me retreat and was killing me on the inside because I felt like I didn’t matter and I was scared that it could all be taken from me at any moment. I had given my heart away to these kids and my heart got trampled on every time I turned around. I did not feel safe and I did not feel valued.

Craig finally realized what he was doing and saved our marriage and our family by putting us all in our proper place. It took only saying to his ex a few times “I’ll talk to Megan about it and get back to you” before she got the drill and soon started to say to him “I know you need to run this by Megan but…” VICTORY!!!! He showed me that I came first which also showed the kids how to value their spouse.

I need to do the same.

I cannot have the kids or work or other people taking my top spot. Craig has to come first, or we are out of balance again. What we have found is that once we have our marital balance in place, everything else falls into line and we have a much happier home. It takes a lot of work and intentional actions, but it is so worth it to be able to model this to our kids and show each other how much we value our God and our family by having our spouse in their proper priority.

As you begin this journey this week, list some of your husband’s characteristics that you wish would change but likely will not. Then, record the way YOU can change to adapt to your husband’s characteristics if these attributes are never altered. We’ll look at this later in the week.

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Let’s Pray

Dear Heavenly Father….. no matter what marital season we are in, we need to check our priorities to Your Word. Help us today to begin to “do it anyway” to fulfill our husband’s needs for Your to get all the glory! Lord, show us today how we can make the most immediate impact and help us to lift each other up in prayer to be our best in our marriages. Lord, for those of us who are not in a marriage currently, speak to our hearts about how to best prepare to be able to give our best to our mates. We love you, Lord, and we thank you for showing us all we need to be our best for Your glory! In Jesus’ mighty name we pray, amen <3

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Your Assignment:

In the comment section below, tell us what you might say if you were counseling young woman on the eve of her wedding day. Do you feel that you have accepted the responsibilities marriage has required or have you resisted them?

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After you have commented below, go back to our Online Bible Study Group on Facebook to see what our Daily FUN Activity is. If you do not yet belong to our OBS Facebook group, and would like to, please send an email to:

GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

We’ll send you the details needed to get you into this group!

Don’t forget to stop by Craig’s blog to see what the guys are up to with The Resolution for Men.

www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Many blessings,

Megan 🙂

Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: Bible, bible study, Christianity, God, marriage, priscilla shirer, proverbs 14:1, The Resolution for Women

Resolution for Women – Chapter 10 – Fulfilling My Husband

September 3, 2012 by girlfriendscoffeehour

Happy Labor Day Everyone! We are all celebrating Labor Day today, so all we are posting today is your reading assignment for this week. We hope you all have enjoyed this awesome weekend, and had plenty of time to enjoy your families, and relax!!

We’re ready for Chapter 10 of The Resolution for Women, this week! It’s all about fulfilling our husband. This is going to be a great chapter!

Here is your reading assignment:

September

3rd — NO ASSIGNMENT! Enjoy the holiday!

4^th: Marriage Proposal – Megan

5^th: Hopes and Fears – Kelley

6^th: Need a Little Peace & Quiet – Beverly

7^th: Week Overview — Christi

That’s it for today! See you tomorrow!

Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: Bible Study, Resolutions

Resolution for Women Chapter 9 Overview

August 31, 2012 by girlfriendscoffeehour

What an amazing week!! 🙂

Enjoy Your Labor Day Weekend!

We’ll be back on TUESDAY!! 🙂

Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: Bible Study, Resolutions

Resolution for Women: Mercy Me

August 30, 2012 by Beverly McCormick

How many times a day or week have you found yourself asking these questions:

Lord what is it that You want me doing?
What do you require of me today?
What jobs in the church do You want me to serve in?
What ministries can I be of help in?
What church do I need to attend and be a part of?

And wait there is that BIG question that we always get around to asking……Lord what is Your WILL for my life?

As we learned in today’s lesson God’s answer to His will for us is found in Micah 6:8 .

“He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”

In this book of the old testament God used Micah to prophesy to the people who had fallen from Him. Amongst the people, there was corruption, idolatry, violence and the belief that personal sacrifice satisfies divine justice. Even with all that was going on with these people and the impending judgment for their wickedness, God was still reaching out for the “hearts” of His people.

This is the place He has always reached out to capture. When someone or something can penetrate our hearts “it sticks” whether it is something good or bad it is in there solid, and in order for God to capture our heart we must allow Him to penetrate it and then we will know His will for us.

In this verse and in your life God has BIG PLANS for you…he said so, so why do we continually ask Him what His will is for us. He has told us already….(act, love, walk)…these are clear visions from His Word of what He wants us doing right now today not in the future, He will take care of the future stuff when He is ready but for now lets do these things that His Word has described for us:

Act justly – God is telling us to do what’s right, so in order to do this we must ask a few questions to ourselves (Do I owe anything to anyone? Do I tell the truth? Have I treated others as they should be treated? Do I have unconfessed sin in my life? Am I living a moral life?

So after reading these few questions can we truly say we are acting justly or do we need to mend some things in our life before we can say “yes I do”. Priscilla stated a woman’s primary interest is seeing justice done, seeking solutions that are fair, reasonable, objective and most importantly – are expressive of the love of Christ.

Maybe we should sit down and make a list of things we need to make right—then make them right—God can’t bless us further until we obey His convictions and change our life to live justly.

Love mercy – this means that we must have a hearty interest in doing things that bless and impact others lives. We MUST seek other people’s needs above our own. People have many needs as we all know but the first need we want to meet is their spiritual need “to know Christ as Savior” then we can help meet physical needs or material needs as God shows us.

Do we give of ourself to others only when it is convenient to us? Do we live our day in such a way that we say I have to take care of me and my family before I can help someone else? Do we keep mental records of what people deserve from us? If this is our way of thinking then we haven’t learned what to “love mercy” really means.

Proverbs 31:20 shows us the perfect example of what we should be doing to “love mercy” to others, it says “ she stretcheth our her hand to the poor; yea; she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.”

Being merciful and loving to others should be our way of life, no matter where we are or what we are doing in our life, that is His will for us.

Walk humbly – to live in complete dependence upon our Holy Lord, He deserves the glory and honor.

We must admit that walking humbly doesn’t fit too well in our society today. As we are all aware everything that goes on in our lives is “public” knowledge now. We post a status on Facebook or Twitter to tell everyone what we are doing, we post the latest pictures of our children/grandchildren/vacations, our lives are open for the whole world to see and know about us. It’s not the old days where what happens at home stays at home, nope the world sees all and knows all because we are the ones telling them all.

We seem to care more about what others think, did they hit the “like” button on our FB status, than what God thinks about what we did in our day today and if what we did was something that brought glory to Him and not ourself.

How can we walk humbly with God, if we aren’t walking with God to begin with in our life? We can’t begin to serve others if our lives aren’t where they need to be yet.

We can’t learn these three aspects of what God’s will is for our life until we practice them each day. (act, love, walk). As we come to this last day of study for this week and at the point of signing the resolution we must make ourself aware of what the Holy Spirit is compelling us to do concerning this lesson and how He wishes to use us. Here are some ideas that came to my mind as I was studying of ways I can act, love and walk…

Cook a meal for someone sick
Make cards for people at a nursing home
Mow someone’s grass
Offer to babysit for someone
Volunteer at a library to read to children
Tutor children
Write letters to first time college students who have left home to go off to school
Clean up the trash in your city
Stand at an intersection and give out bottles of water to people on a hot steamy day

These are just some things that God brought to my heart as I studied today’s lesson that I intend on acting upon. My opportunity to know God’s will has been in front of my eyes for a long time, I’ve never needed to ask God what His will is for me, it’s all around me, I just need to act on it and He will continue providing other things that His will is for me as I show my obedience to doing the ones He has already presented to me now.

This weeks chapter is entitled “My Heart”, finding and knowing God’s will is really pretty simple. It starts, and ends with our heart.

Let’s do God’s will and do it without any reservations, let’s keep our eyes and hearts open and resolve to be available!

Let’s Pray

Dear God, I thank you for showing and explaining to each of us that Your will is already planned out for each of us and that as we are obedient to act, love and walk you will show us specifically where to go and what to do. In your name I pray, Amen.

Your Assignment:

Ask God to show you things He wants You to do in this next week in order to act, to love and to walk in His will, and more importantly when He speaks, OBEY and do it!

Now head on over to our Online Bible Study Group on Facebook to see what our Daily FUN Activity is. If you do not yet belong to our OBS Facebook group, and would like to, please send an email to:

GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

We’ll send you the details needed to get you into this group!

Don’t forget to stop by Craig’s blog to see what the guys are up to with The Resolution for Men.

www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: Bible Study, Resolutions

The Resolution for Women – How do you Heal an Unbroken Heart

August 29, 2012 by Kelly

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom Shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I, Send me!

Isaiah 6:8

Wow, what a week to have me blog for this chapter! I just came back from a life changing trip to Nicaragua. This wasn’t my first mission trip though, in fact, last year I went to Guatemala with all intentions of going back. God started working on me way before we left on August 11. I signed up to go to Guatemala then a Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference was scheduled in the same month – due to financial reasons I had to choose one or the other. I chose Proverbs 31 as I felt like God was working on me to expand my personal ministry and begin writing or speaking. So….I registered for the conference. A few weeks later at church I see where my own church is taking their first independent mission trip to Nicaragua! Immediately God let me know that I was supposed to be on that team – so I cancelled the conference registration and joined the missionary team. My wonderful husband had given me the conference money which I now needed for the mission trip and I was able to raise the rest without issue. Yes, God was at work. When I almost raised all the money needed, the people at work asked me how much more I needed, I told them $125 – they raised $82 for me. I talked to our pastor taking us, his records had me only owing $80 and I had just received $82! I preface this story telling you this so you understand how from the very beginning, when I was asking God to show me what ministry activity I was supposed to participate in – He was there – setting me up the entire time.

With that resolved, Like Priscilla in our story today, I now prayed for a broken heart – for the biggest, cracked, shattered, brokest broken heart because you just can’t heal one that is unbroken. I truly wanted to FEEL the pain, I wanted to understand, I didn’t just want to go through the motions. I needed to be broke. Does that make sense?

The first 5 days of our mission trip were spent in a village called Salinas Grande. It is on the ocean and is built around a salt mine. It was about 8 miles of dirt roads, Many houses were lean-to’s wrapped in black plastic, some were block but were open to weather. People rode horses and yes, we saw many horses with make-shift wagons (piece of flat plywood) that they would ride multiple people or things on. Most had electricity with mostly 1 lightbulb hanging for light. However running water was not an everyday gift in most houses. People went with buckets and containers to get their water; sometimes on bikes, sometimes on horses, sometimes walking. Oh yes, the heart was breaking already. Thank you Jesus. How can we have so much and they have so little? Why God?

We met a 90-year-old beautiful, precious woman at one of the feeding programs. She was manually hoisting the water from a very deep well with a bucket and pulley. Our guys tried to lift the water to see how she managed, they could not lift it far! God, she’s 90 and happy, I said. This is life for her; but why? We all have clean running water into our homes – and this elderly sweet lady had to drop a bucket into a well for hers? More heart break….I gave this woman the biggest hug I could possibly give. There is no language barrier with a hug! And the GREATest news…..We had a person on our team who dealt with water pumps at work and we were able to give this her running water at the flip of a switch. No more pulling her water up with a 10 gallon bucket!

The children were beautiful. They would come to the feeding programs at lunch time and get a nice hot lunch. These are funded by missionary teams through Open Eyes Ministries. They would come up on bikes or walking with their empty bowls and spoons and for some, this might be the only full meal a day they get. Can you feel my heart shattering…..being totally broken. And I prayed for this! I needed this! The ladies would cook over their fires, no stoves for them, preparing a big bowl of rice, a big bowl of beans, and a big bowl of some kind of meat and vegetables and we would serve these beautiful little people. We’d play with them – they loved to play ‘football’ (soccer), we had some doing the hokey pokey with us and a translator – All God’s people, but living a different kind of life.

We went into a pastor’s home for a sewing ministry – the young girls were learning how to sew and were making school uniforms to help furnish uniforms to the children at schools that didn’t have the money for them. Someone in ministry had gotten them Brother Sewing Machines to work with – they looked so out-of-place in this pastors open house with chickens and little biddies running through it – they even had a couple of green parakeets running around – but they were happy. It was HOT and there wasn’t much air running through the house, but here these girls sat learning a trade because someone cared. Amazing Grace! God is so good! The navy blue skirts they made had perfect pleats. I stood in awe. I had to donate to this ministry. They were working so hard to give back and they didn’t have enough themselves. —-crash, shatter—-bang…

I know this is getting long-winded, but I have to tell you about the final straw! We went into the schools to teach lessons to the children. We taught Honesty, Optimism, Integrity, and on the last day we took them the gospel. I had the opportunity for the first time to stand up in front of this class and teach them about taking Jesus into their hearts, asking for forgiveness of their sins, teaching them that their slate would wash clean, and they would be new. In my class, I had 22 students and a teacher pray the prayer of salvation! Oh be still my heart! Further shatter…..completely broken – emotionally exhausted. We had 94 total give their hearts in the school that day!

I will end by telling you that I left Nicaragua with a shattered, broken, destroyed heart. God made sure that it would never be the same again. Even as it healed, the remnants of the cracks would remain. I now know that my heart is in ministry for the lost. For those that do not know Jesus Christ. I am on a life mission to be part of the groups that change things in the world for those are less fortunate, and many times lost. I won’t ever be the same person after this trip. God used it to change me so I in turn could change the lives of others. I’m thankful to Jesus for shattering my heart. For showing me the way. I pray that if you have never had your heart spiritually broken, you pray for it. Pray that God takes it and shatters in it pieces. The beauty of what you feel afterwards will change your life as it did mine.

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Let’s Pray

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for breaking my heart. Thank you for allowing me to share my broken heart with others; allowing me to be a vessel for you. Bless each one that reads this blog today and each one that doesn’t. I pray that you will work in our lives, in our hearts, and mold us and shape us to be missionaries to the world – starting right here in our own towns and cities. Thank you for the running water, the electricity, the way of life we have here in the USA. Work with us so that we can take some of our wealth, spiritually and otherwise, to other places in the world, blessing your children there as we are blessed. We ask these things in your name, Amen.

Your Assignment:

Perhaps you’ve been burned when trying to reach out too drastically, people have taken advantage of you or misunderstood your motives; but when you to go minister Christ’s love to another person, what is your real reason for going? What’s a better way to evaluate your success than with measurable, feel-good results alone?

GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

We’ll send you the details needed to get you into this group!

Don’t forget to stop by Craig’s blog to see what the guys are up to with The Resolution for Men.

www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

With Big Hugs and a Big Heart,

<3 Kelley

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Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: bible study, Christianity, compassion, fellowship, God, Jesus, Love, mercy, Micah 6:8, Prayer, priscilla shirer, Resolutions, serve, The Resolution for Women

Resolution for Women- Look Again

August 28, 2012 by Megan Smidt

I feel so ill-equipped to write the blog post for today’s lesson. I pray you will bear with me as the Lord leads my fingers as they dance across the keyboard…..

Have you ever found yourself in a similar circumstance to the one that Priscilla describes in today’s lesson? Maybe it was at your church or a conference or even watching the news on television….. but have you ever been bombarded with image after image of horrible, unspeakable travesty that make you want to run from it and hide you face?

I have.

For me, it happened a month or two ago when I was catching up one afternoon on Facebook……

I’m “friends” with many of the teens I work with at church Thursday nights and, as you can imagine, I like to encourage them in their walk with the Lord in social media channels like Facebook. On this day, I was at a loss for what to say.

This BEAUTIFUL daughter of the King who I met through my own children at church had started dating a Muslim boy, had renounced her Christian faith, and was excited to show off her new look wearing her burqa veil. I didn’t know what to do. I could not click “like” but I also didn’t want to make her feel like she isn’t beautiful to me…… I wanted to reach through my laptop screen, scoop her into my arms, and help encourage her right back towards her Heavenly Father…… but I didn’t know how to do that in the constraints of reality… so I prayed.

I prayed a lot.

I started reading more and more about the Muslim faith and a woman’s place within that religion/ culture. I kept praying and learning and I found out that many members of my church family had been praying too.

THIS MORNING I popped on Facebook to post today’s FUN in our Resolution Group and I saw this gorgeous face staring back at me once again and my heart sank. Yes, I have been fervently praying for this precious soul, but I still have not acted on encouraging her or speaking into her life in any way…… and then God nudged me….

He reminded me that she sees every single word I post on my own Facebook page every day. She has not unfriended me so I get to assume that she has at least read one or two encouraging things I have posted! However, I know that God is calling me to be more bold than this with her heart…. and I know He will equip me with all I need to do His work in speaking into her heart…. or any other dear heart that He might show me that is in need of His pure, unconditional love.

My town has been in the national news over the recent past about many of our residents not being happy about a Muslim Training Center that is enlarging its current structure here and I am sad to say that I do not feel that some of my brothers and sisters in Christ here have handled their disapproval of this in the most constructive or Godly manner…. I don’t want to fall into that category…. but I also want to respond in a way that glorifies our Father and shows love for all people. I know he will give me the words to share with any young woman He puts in my path and I know He will also equip YOU to represent His Kingdom in a mighty way for whatever cause He places so intentionally on your dear heart.

Habakkuk 1:3

³Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Priscilla reminds us that God puts these images and circumstances in front of us for a reason….. it is simply up to us whether we choose to do something about it or not. I know it is hard not to look away or just pray that SOMEONE ELSE will make a difference with it… but why not allow yourself to be that instrument, that willing vessel for God’s work to be done in this earth? Certain injustices will stir your heart in ways it wouldn’t the heart of another. God has divinely designed YOU to specifically impact that injustice in a unique way that only YOU can, dear sister. I know you don’t feel ready, or able, or prepared…. that’s what God is for!

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