December 23, 2024

The Resolution for Women — Faithfully His

July 23, 2012 by

Our Memory Verse

Today, I have a special surprise for you!  I’m not going to be talking, or writing about today’s lesson….

I’m going to let Priscilla Shirer speak to you directly, about being Faithfully His!

Are you ready???!!!!  Here we go!

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Please note that Girlfriends Coffee Hour is not endorsing the

Crossroads Memberships mentioned at the end of this video.

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Let’s Pray

Father, as we begin this new lesson this week, let us prepare our days so we are able to clear our schedules, and our minds, Lord, to better hear Your voice.  Let us lay aside all things that concern us this day, so we are able to sit at Your feet and learn from You, so we can become even more Faithfully Yours, Lord!  In Jesus’ Name, AMEN!!  

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Your Assignment Today:  

Take at least 30 minutes today to clear your mind, and your schedule, so you are better prepared this week to hear from God.  Share below in the comments section, what you will do this week to make this happen, each day.  Then go on over to your OBS Facebook Group to see what we have planned for you today!  You just never know what we will come up with next!!  

If you are not a member of our OBS Facebook Group, and would like to be, please send us an email and we’ll be happy to place you!!   Our email address is:  GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

Living Intentionally Each Day to Become More Faithfully His,

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The Resolution for Women: The Affirmation Crusade

July 19, 2012 by

Memory Verse:

You did not choose Me, but I chose you.

I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit.

John 15:16

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A crusade can be defined as “a vigorous concerted movement for a cause or against an abuse.”

Yes, precious girlfriends, I agree with Priscilla….. what we need is indeed an AFFIRMATION CRUSADE!!!

My primary Love Language just so happens to be “Words of Affirmation.” Not only do I love to hear them…. but I am very generous in giving them out! Today’s lesson made me stop for a minute and think about why I might be so intentional about this and if I am only this way with certain people, or am I free with my affirming words to all I come in contact with.

I really think that I am so intentional about this because of the negative words I was bombarded with growing up. Of course, not everyone in my life did that, but 2 very close people to me did….. and it hurt. It made it hard for me to speak those words over myself for many years, but through understanding the truth of God’s love for me, I have been able to break that cycle.

It is important to be your friends’ biggest cheerleader! You might just be the only woman in their life who affirms them and that alone can completely change their perspective on their day.

I know I am hardest on my family and I am working very hard to change that. I expect a lot from them… more than I should. I do affirm them and cheer them on, but I also can be very critical. I am really going to intentionally do my best to squelch my critical spirit and focus more on building them up!

SO…. we have the “why”… so we need to know the HOW!”

How can you be intentional about affirming other women in your life? I’ve compiled a list here and I would love it if you could add to it in the comments section of the blog today! Let’s think outside the box and see what we can come up with together! Maybe a friend surprised you with some awesome words in a unique way that spoke directly to your heart. How did she do it?

 

You could……..

Write a letter….. you know, snail mail! How awesome is it to get something besides a bill in your mail box?!? Decorate the envelope in a fun way too! You can even address it “To the beautiful Mrs. Megan Smidt!!!” 😀 (…just a suggestion…)

For my daughter’s 14th birthday, we had a slumber party and all of her girlfriends wrote annonymous “love letters” that were full of affirming words and we left them all over our town. We put them on grocery store shelves, the pick up counter at Starbucks, in random mail boxes, and even in the pews at church. The girls had so much fun spreading this joy and Vicky has told me that her friends have continued to leave these letters around town even after they went home! We need to be modeling this behavior not only for our friends but also our children!

Sing them a song on their voice mail. It could be something like “That’s what friends are for” or “Beautiful, beautiful”

You could greet them in a fun way the next time you see them. Instead of greeting them with a simple “hello, ” How about giving them a huge hug and compliment them on something they are wearing or their hair. You could even address them as your “gorgeous friend” or your “most incredible sister.”

Make them a banner the next time you know they are coming to your house! Make it big and bright for all the passers-by to see! Hang it across your garage or over the front door so they can’t miss it!

Send them random txt messages every once in a while just letting them know how much you love that they are in your life!

Send their husband or kids a letter telling them how much it means to YOU that they let you have time together. Tell them how much your friend means to YOU!

What can YOU come up with???? What will you do this week to INTENTIONALLY affirm your closest sisters in Christ?

Priscilla points out to us that “…this resolution not only affects you. It will also enhance the women around you as they experience the affirmation that BUBBLES up from the security you’re living in. This should be our MANDATE, our CAMPAIGN. A MOVEMENT of women linked by our resolution and devoted to seeing it manifested in the lives of the women around us.”

WHen we are living OUR lives secure and complete in the authentically unique way that God created us, our salt and light is contagious! Give away your compliments freely to yourself and all those you love and see your love spread to all those around you! Let’s be infectiously bold in our own unique ways for our Lord and Savior! He commands it <3

AUTHENTICALLY ME

I will accept and celebrate my uniqueness,

and will esteem and encourage the distinctions I admire in others.

Signed x       Megan “Lucy” Smidt               

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Let’s Pray: 

Dear Lord, we praise You for all of the unique qualities you have blessed us with! You have made each of us so unique for Your purposes to be fulfilled when we are true to who you created us to be. That is so awesome! Give us Your revelation into anything we are not seeing that might be keeping us from Your very best of us in this area. Help us take off our masks and be excited to show the world the beautiful and sometimes rough women you have so specifically made each of us to be. We love you, Lord, and we thank Your for Your perfect ways! In Your Son’s name we pray, amen <3

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Today’s blog assignment: 

Explore for a little bit why you are or are not affirming in your words to your girlfriends. Also… think about if there are any women in your sphere who you are not comfortable affirming…. why do you think that is? Then….. resolve to commend all of the women in your life for their unique value and worth to you this week! Read the resolution out loud and sign your name below it in your book.

If you are not a member of our OBS Facebook Group, and would like to be, please send us an email and we’ll be happy to place you!!   Our email address is:  GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

my blog: www.glorytoglorylifecoaching.wordpress.com

My Craig’s blog about the Men’s Resolution journey: www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Many blessings,

Megan 🙂

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The Resolution for Women- Supernatural Selection

July 17, 2012 by

Memory Verse:

You did not choose Me, but I chose you.

I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit.

John 15:16

 We have three takeaways from today’s lesson that we cannot take lightly or breeze right past. Please read and then re-read today’s lesson intentionally, my dear sisters because THIS is exactly where our true value lies…….. THIS is our value in Christ.

1. God chose YOU.

2. God set YOU apart.

3. God has appointed YOU.

Did you read that in the verse typed above? You probably read it…. but did you really sink your teeth into it? Dear friends…. it is so important that we let each of these truths intentionally penetrate every part of our hearts and souls. Let them weave their way into all of the places you have been stuffing down the lies that have been said over you during the life and let God’s truth bring light to those dark corners and crevices.

Have you ever really thought about why you are in a certain situation or circumstance you are in? Have you? I want you to think about one aspect of your life and dissect it with me here about your unique value to that situation or circumstance. We started this process last week, remember? Priscilla shared with us why it is good to be a girl and we were challenged to look at a specific role we play in our life and note how we are good for it, necessary to it, an important component to it, worthy to be part of it, and trustworthy to fulfill your role in it.

I hope you did this exercise along with me last week. If you did, pull it out because we are going to look at it from a little bit of a different perspective today. If you didn’t, that’s okay too….. just think of one of the roles you currently play in your life and get ready to explore it with us here.

The role God CHOSE me for that I discussed last week was my role as “Mom” to Craig’s five kids from his previous marriage that I have since adopted. I joke with my daughter Vicky sometimes that when I was a little girl, I never dreamed of growing up to raise someone else’s FIVE children, but at the same time, I cannot imagine my life any other way. I know in my heart that God specifically had ME picked out for this not only because I am just THAT CRAZY (hahaha) but because I 100% fill the need in who I am that they were missing in their life. Does that make sense? Those 5 aspects that I bring to this role that I mentioned earlier explain exactly why God CHOSE me specifically for this role … it was just up to me to be obedient and bring my gifts and my unique self to this role for God’s purposes to be fulfilled in it.

God SET ME APART for this role. I am not like all the other moms out there. That used to be hard for me because I felt like such an outcast and like no one would ever take me seriously as a parent because I was so young and really did have NO IDEA what I was doing. But that was me giving into my insecurities as a parent from believing lies said over me my whole life. I never babysat, never changed a diaper, never cooked…. how could I possibly have what it takes to be a parent to my new insta-family? Well….. I could because God set me apart uniquely for THIS… at THIS moment in time, with THIS set of children, at THIS point in their lives and my life. When I tried to be the version of “mom” that I thought everyone expected me to be, it was a MESS!!! When I fully embraced each season we were in and lived fully in it, we ALL thrived! God has put me in every situation and circumstance in my to SET ME APART for this and every other role he places before me. It is up to me to CHOSE to thrive or merely survive in it. As I thrive, so do the lives He has entrusted to me.

God has APPOINTED ME. It really does not matter if I, personally, am happy with who I am or even happy with the circumstances I am currently living in. What DOES  matter is that *I* am specifically here for a reason intentionally and purposefully by God in His divine design. It is supernaturally ordained…. and He fully expects to reap much fruit from the seeds He is sowing through me being an obediant vessel in this circumstance and situation. I trust Him because he knows me intimately and I have grown and continue to grow to know Him.

He loved ME enough to make me like no other. He has given me this task that is mine alone to complete with His abundant help and empowerment. It would be denying HIM if I do not love myself as who I am… who He created. It would be denying His perfect plan.

I pray you are able to see this in YOUR role you chose to explore last week. Has God shown you yet WHY He uniquely created YOU specifically for that role? I would love to read all about it here in a comment on this blog. Please share how your unique role has come full-circle for you to know fully why he planted you where he did for His purpose. I would love to praise His work right along with you!

I understand now that my role in my kids’ lives is bigger than I could have ever expected ten years ago when I was “just” a weekend stepmom trying to keep my sanity as I navigated the turbulent waters of step-life. God had me in ever hard circumstance and every messed-up situation so that I can now speak into and encourage other stepmoms and kids through those hard relationships and confusing times. I have been there and I let God do His good work. I let Him use me and I continue to let Him use me no matter how ill-equipped or unworthy I feel. Feelings are deceptive but God’s truth is infallible!

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Let’s Pray: 

Lord, we come to You today so grateful for Your supernatural selection! Thank you for making each of us so uniquely for our individual situations and circumstances to fulfill Your purposes on this earth. We are not worthy in our eyes Lord, but thank you that we are in Your’s! Help us to see ourselves more as You see us, Father…. perfectly created in every way for purposes bigger than anything we could come up with on our own! Help us today to see each of the roles we have as You see them…. perfect and planned for Your purposes….. and help us be willing to be obedient to Your call on our lives within these roles. Rid us of our selves, Lord!!! Help us be real with ourselves and each other to finally be SET FREE from the lies that keep us from Your very best! We love you, Lord, and we thank you! Amen.

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Today’s blog assignment: 

Did you see it in there? Share whatever you feel comfortable about your role you explored and what God has shown you through this exploration.  When you have completed this assignment here on the blog, return to your Facebook Online Bible Study Group for today’s FUN Activity!!  You just never know what we have in store for you!! 🙂

If you are not a member of our OBS Facebook Group, and would like to be, please send us an email and we’ll be happy to place you!!   Our email address is:  GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

my blog: www.glorytoglorylifecoaching.wordpress.com

My Craig’s blog about the Men’s Resolution journey: www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Many blessings,

Megan 🙂

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The Resolution for Women – Intelligent Design

July 16, 2012 by

Click HERE for a Quick Message From Christi

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Memory Verse:

You did not choose Me, but I chose you.

I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit.

John 15:16

 

I have to be honest and tell you that today’s chapter really spoke to me in so many ways!  I can’t even tell you what an impact it has had on me!  I struggle with my value, like many of you do.  I always have.  It’s like I know in my head that I am valuable, but it just hasn’t reached my heart yet.  I can tell you how worthy you are, to God, and I do mean it.  I just need to take my own medicine.

Last week, I was on the phone with my Life Coach.  We discussed this very issue:  the feeling of no value.  Just after that call, I opened this book and read today’s chapter, and just about fell over!  I said, “Wow, God!  You know just how to get Your message across, don’t You!!?”  It was amazing!  But that really shouldn’t surprise me because God is always listening, and He is always ready to talk to us, when we are willing to actually sit down and listen!!

Today, I want to show you who you are in Him.  I am taking my own medicine in this lesson, also.  I pray that this scripture speaks to you, as it did to me when I read it.

1 Peter 2: 9-10 (MSG)

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

Let’s look at those two scriptures just a little bit closer.

  • You are chosen by God
  • You are chosen for the high calling to do God’s will
  • You are chosen to be holy, set apart, sanctified
  • You are His instruments to speak for Him
  • You are to tell others what God has done in your life
  • You have been changed from being a nothing, into being a “something!
  • You have gone from being rejected, to being accepted!

Did you see that?  We have such a high calling on our lives because HE CHOSE US!  He chose US because He knew we would do what He called us to do!

He did not reject us!  He accepted us!

He turned us from being a nothing, into being a something!!

Wow, Ladies!  What more do we need to see here!?!

We should never allow others, or things, to control our thoughts about who we are, and what our value is!  God says it right here….WE ARE CHOSEN TO DO HIS WORK!  That is VALUE!  He would never choose us if He didn’t think we couldn’t do what He is calling us to do!

Whether your job is as a homemaker, a nurse, a doctor, a teacher, or a ….. the list could go on and on…..  HE CHOSE YOU to be that person!  He chose you.   Therefore, He will equip you.  If He will equip you, He will be with you all the way….  All the way, my dear Girlfriend!  He sees your worth to do His work; to spread His word; to spread His love!  And if He has chosen you, this means He thinks you are worthy and valuable enough to do what He needs you to do!

I don’t know about YOU, but I am about to jump up and down and shout, “Hallelujah!!!”  Can I get an AMEN out there???!!!

As Priscilla said on page 53, “this resolution is important – this commitment to assign genuine value to who we are based on our God-given worth, talents, gifts, and abilities.  Because once we’ve settled this issue (in our own hearts … my emphasis here), everything else can begin falling appropriately into place.  We’ll have the freedom to build our lives on what really matters, discarding all the things that don’t.”

Wow!  I don’t know about you, but I am ready to discard my stinkin’ thinkin’ and start focusing on what God’s word says about me!  I’m ready to stop owning those negative thoughts, and start taking back my life, and my value, for God!!

Remember, “The life you are renovating has far too much God-given potential for you to plant its roots in something so menial.  Dig deep and lean in to the truth – the truth of who you are and what He’s created you to offer to the world – and then orbit your life around that steadfast knowledge.”  That steadfast knowledge!  That knowledge that will never let you down, no matter what!  AMEN?

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Let’s Pray: 

Oh Father, we come to You today with open arms, and tears of repentance for the times we have doubted our worth; for the times we have not chosen to believe Your word, and allowed our stinkin’ thinkin’ to take first place over You.  Lord, please forgive us!  Cleanse us of all that junk that keeps us so bottled up inside.  Cleanse us from the pity-parties that we throw for ourselves!  Cleanse us from all the lies that we have told ourselves, and have allowed ourselves to believe.

Lord, I give You praise for all that You have shown us in this chapter today!  Thank You for opening our eyes to see who we truly are, in You Lord!  May we stand in that knowledge today, and allow it to sink down deep into our hearts, so that we know that we know, that we know!  Thank You Lord for revelation knowledge!  May we never go back to that stinkin’ thinkin’ again!   In Jesus’ Name, AMEN!

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Today’s blog assignment: 

Name some things in your life that you have allowed to shape your self-worth or self-image?  When you have completed this assignment here on the blog, return to your Facebook Online Bible Study Group for today’s FUN Activity!!  You just never know what we have in store for you!! 

 

If you are not a member of our OBS Facebook Group, and would like to be, please send us an email and we’ll be happy to place you!!   Our email address is:  GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

 

BE BLESSED!!

 


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The Resolution for Women — Week 2 Overview

July 13, 2012 by

Weekly Review

Hasn’t this been an awesome week learning how to be God’s Girl!  Wow!!!  I have so enjoyed reading all of your comments this week!  It blesses me to no end to see how God is working in your lives, and how excited you are about it!  Praise God!!

I’m actually going to have our beautiful Megan Smidt, do the Weekly Overview this week.  I am actually at the hospital today having surgery on my finger!  So I pre-wrote this to make sure I could “talk” to you myself this week!  I hope you have enjoyed this last week as much as I have!

I must admit that I’m not really a girly-girl, but after this week’s lessons, I am sure encouraged to start looking for ways to become one!  It is such a blessing to be a GIRL!  God created us to be women for a reason!  He could have chosen to make you or I a male, but because of the special plan that He had for our lives and how He was going to use us to serve Him, He chose to make us a Girl!  I am honored to be a Girl!  I am honored to serve Him in whatever capacity He asks of me.

So, with that Ladies, I am going to turn today’s blog over to Megan so she can review this last week with you!  I pray that you will have an awesome weekend, and I’ll see you back here again on Sunday for next week’s reading assignments!   BE BLESSED!

Living Intentionally to Be My Best for Him,

Christi Wilson, Founder of Girlfriends Coffee Hour

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HAPPY Friday, my dear friends!

WHAT A WEEK! I don’t know about all of you, but this book sure is rocking my world! It’s all good of course, but as I sort through all of the junk I am resolving and being released from FOR GOOD, I can’t help but be a super-girly emotional mess! God is healing some places in me that I didn’t even know were sick….. and I pray He is healing your heart and soul as well.

MONDAY: We had a giveaway and our BIG WINNER of that super cute t-shirt was Donna Slaten!!! Congratulations, Donna! We want to see a photo of you strutting your stuff in it once it arrives! 🙂

TUESDAY: We started off Week 2 learning what it means to have biblical femininity and to and live it out loud. Priscilla Shirer helped us to begin to understand the full scope of this aspect of our resolution by asking us to explore how we have seen feminist ideals affect women in the way they dress, act and make decisions. We thought about some ways we see young women today turning away from biblical womanhood and we mulled over what biblical principles of womanhood strike us as stifling or repressive.

That was a lot for my little head to digest…… but with all of your help, I made it through to day 2 and I’m glad you all did, too!  🙂

WEDNESDAY: We had a good time on day 2 as we talked all about how good it is to be a girl! What an affirming day this was! I loved how much I saw everyone encourage each other as being GOOD, NECESSARY, IMPORTANT, WORTHY, and TRUSTWORTHY in every single role we live in our precious lives on this earth! I struggled quite a bit with the “worthy’ part of this exercise and I heard from many of you that you did too, but what it all came down to was that even if WE don’t feel worthy, GOD deems us as super worthy and the more we let that seep into our hearts, we will believe it too and live our every role with the COURAGEOUS confidence that God calls us to have!

We also talked about the importance of raising our children and all the young people we come in contact with to understand submission to authority and the value of women. You all came up with some great ways YOU can influence the young people in your life to appreciate biblical femininity and be their very vest for God to get all the glory!

THURSDAY: It was all about submission in the last segment of reading for this week “Role Reversal.” With Priscilla’s help, we learned that surrendering to submission is not devaluing or demeaning your talents and gifts….. rather it provides boundaries within your potential can truly flourish! “Your strength can best be displayed, its benefits most fully experienced, when you choose the trusted, effective boundaries of God’s established order.” Wether leaders in your life live their responsibilities well or not, they will be held accountable for how they handle their role, just as we will be. It is our job to function well within our submitted roles all while we put our trust in God’s faithful love and goodness by obeying.

There is so much freedom and peace in that, dear sisters!

….and in that lies our second Resolution!

PURPOSEFULLY FEMININE

I will champion God’s model for womanhood in the face of a post feminist culture. I will teach it to my daughters and encourage its support by my sons.

Please sign here: x _________________________________

Please leave a comment below about one “ah-ha” moment for you this week! We want to know how this lesson spoke to your heart!

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Next week, our topic is
“Authentically Me— a resolution to value myself and celebrate others”.  
Oh…. I CAN’T WAIT for this!!!
 
Have a Great weekend Ladies!  See you again on Sunday with our assignments for next week!! 
Please keep in mind that if you have fallen behind in your reading, we weekend is a great time to get all caught up! 
 
Make today AMAZING, 
 
Megan <3 
www.glorytoglorylifecoaching.wordpress.com
 
Craig’s taking the Men’s Resolution Journey: 
www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com
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Let’s pray:
Father, thank You so much for all You showed us through Your Word about biblical femininity and thank You for every revelation in our spirit. We know it will be impossible to live this resolution OUT LOUD BOLDLY in our fallen world, but we know that through YOU all things are possible! We thank You Lord for what You are doing in all of our lives through this study.  We ask special blessings upon Priscilla Shirer, the author of Resolution, for the work she put into writing this amazing book!  I thank You for protecting all of our homes from any and all negativity and confusion that satan might try to throw our way to distract us from YOU purpose through this study. We love You Lord, in Jesus’ Name, AMEN!
 
After reading today’s blog, please return to our Online Bible Study Group on Facebook for your daily activity!  ♥  You just never know what we have in store for you!
 
 
If you are not currently a part of our Online Bible Study group, and would like to be, please send an email to GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com, and we’ll be glad to add you!
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