Women In Ministry ♥
Day 1 – Let’s Start at the Very Beginning (Worship)
Can you see the scene in your mind’s eye?
“Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read, you begin with ABC
When you sing, you begin with Do Re Mi…”
Oh, that takes me back. Who else LOVED that movie? When I was a little girl, I so badly wanted to be Maria—not the nun part but the care-free soul with the killer voice!
I remember singing for hours, “the hiiiiils are aliiiive with the South of Muuuuuusic…aaah-aaah-ah-aaaaaahhhh” and driving my brother nuts! Haha!
My friends, when it comes to walking in the UNFORCED RHYTHMS OF GRACE, there are some absolutes that we must establish. Long before we hyperventilate and burnout, long before we start cutting stuff out of our busy lives, it’s crucial that we “start at the very beginning.”
Today, I am talking about WORSHIP.
When Work Becomes Fun – Glorious Creativity
“Ok, guys. Go! You’ve only got 8 seconds to catch your reader’s attention. Write!”
The room was a mix of expression… some faces furrowed in concentration, desperate to finish their thoughts before the five-minute timer ran out. Some showed panic, realizing that original ideas were lacking and ‘imagination muscles’ were out of shape. And then there were those who looked like deer in headlights—“What are we doing?”
The fury of scratching pens and pencils followed for the next five minutes. You could almost hear the wheels turning and smoke rising.
Creativity! Beautiful, glorious creativity!
Get out of your box. Break free from of the practical. Dream. Stretch those muscles. Force yourself to think bigger, brighter, bolder.
Collect Words of Life, Not Criticism
The BEST part of moving houses, or cities, or nations is that you get rid of the old and start fresh. Garage sales, yard sales, rummage sales, although painful at times are brilliant for reducing clutter.
Minimal mess. Minimal clutter. Minimal packing.
But what about our emotional, mental, and psychological baggage? How do we manage that kind of clutter after years of collecting life experiences?
This season has been harder than I expected. Little did I know that when I pressed ‘publish’ on my book, I would be pressing GO on a roller coaster of emotional turbulence.
* Insecurity? Haven’t dealt with that in years, but here we go!
* Comparison? Oh, my goodness, where did that come from?
* Second-guessing myself? Stop this ride—I wanna get off now.
There’s a verse in the Bible that speaks about God sending His Word and then TESTING that Word (check out Psalm 105:19). I think that’s what’s been happening here.
You see, whenever we allow God to use us to deliver something important, WE get tested in it first.
What Makes a Beautiful Life?
What makes a beautiful life?
Is it the number of friends you have on Facebook? Or the number of followers on Instagram? Or perhaps the number of subscribers to your blog?
Is it dependent on the size of your house, the size of your bank account, or the successes of your children?
Or is your quality-of-life dependent on the busyness of your social calendar? Or the winning streak of the sports teams you play on?
No, my friends. None of those things can accurately determine whether or not you have a beautiful life? That life-more-abundantly kinda life that you are looking for is so much more than external circumstances.
♥ It’s about having people around you who truly know, love, and accept you.
♥ It’s about having a purpose in getting up each morning, and satisfaction when you lay your head on the pillow at night.
♥ It’s about having a deep understanding that “God sets the lonely in families” (Psalm 68:6) and you don’t have to figure things out on your own.
♥ It means opening the door to your house… and your heart… and allowing people IN.
I’ve often said over the years that…
