Dear, Dear Ones, I hope you’ve had such a blessed Lord’s Day. I have had the kind you hope for all week long. One that started way before I meant it to because I had a birddog home from the lease still on hunting time that thought she needed to check the backyard for wild game at 5:30 AM. I was so annoyed. I tried to go back to sleep but I so dearly love the morning before the sun – or anyone else in my house – rises. I just couldn’t resist it. I slipped out of a very cozy bed, turned on the coffee pot, made a fire, got my Bible and my Breaking Free workbook and headed to Keith’s leather chair, the place closest to the fireplace. I had time enough to do two whole lessons (no small feat, considering the author is very wordy and we must have looked up somewhere between twenty and thirty passages. For the love). Then I had my prayer time and told Jesus what was on my mind.
I thought Keith was going to sleep the day away so I finally awakened him at 9:00 AM and asked him if he wanted to go to church with Melissa and I. (He goes when he wants. I gave up trying to make him. If I pressured him to go when he didn’t want to, he did lots of huffing and puffing and squirming and sighing during the service and I’d start feeling responsible for the whole thing and begin having psychosomatic symptoms – panting, lip-chewing, coughing, itching, nervous giggling – doubling the distraction for those sitting unfortunately close. Keith also has trouble keeping his thoughts to himself in church. A fact considerably complicated by his increasing volume. He’s shot so many guns in his ears he’s a tad hard of hearing so he doesn’t realize how loud he’s talking sometimes. But only at church, come to think of it. I need to meditate on that later. Therefore, if he wasn’t happy with something – like the length of the service and how long the line was going to be at lunch – our entire section could well know about it. Hence, I no longer pressure him. Haven’t for a good long time. Don’t have to much anymore, anyway, because he’s pretty taken with our pastor. Which means he comes to church now a couple of times a month – Keith, not Pastor – which makes me a very happy girl. When he doesn’t, sometimes I guilt-trip him but I always wait until after I get home from the service. That way he doesn’t decide to go but in a huff.
Keith wasn’t in a Sunbeam Sunday School class as a small child like I was where the Scripture we most often chanted was, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.” Keith is not that glad. Says God isn’t just in a house. He’s also out in the wild. You can debate that one with him till the cows come home but all he’s going to hear is a gosh-awful mess of mooing. All said, if attending is his idea, we have a much more cheerful experience.) So, perhaps now you’ll understand how happy I was this morning when Keith said he wanted to join us.
Especially considering we were doing something different today, which he’d of been less likely to do. Melissa called me last night and asked if I wanted to go with her to a church she’s passed many times in her neck of the woods. She said, “I have a feeling it’s such a good church and I’ve been telling myself I was going to visit before I moved. My time’s running out. Wanna go?” And I did! So, after enjoying a leisurely morning of John Martinez coffee and Jimmy Dean Sausage with toast (50% less fat sausage and whole grain toast. I’m a health conscious woman), we headed out the door to fetch our baby daughter who will be married and move off a month from Wednesday. I was filled with inexpressible joy, feeling like the most blessed woman in the world. It was a gorgeous, cool and DRY Sunday morning in Houston, Texas, my husband was going to church, and, frankly, I was having a terrific hair day.
When we drove up, Melissa was standing in the parking lot, smiling from ear to ear, with a blouse and jumper on, tights, and black shoes. Her eyes sparkled in the morning sunshine like dewy blades of greenest grass. She looked about ten. Till you saw that Greek New Testament clutched in her right hand. The three of us headed in no time over to BridgePoint Bible Church and actually got to park up close in the “Visitors” section. Were we ever elated! The church was beautiful – modern architecture – and looked almost brand new. People were smiling, chattering, and either making their way into the sanctuary or out of the sanctuary, depending on whether they were in the first service or second. I was delighted to see everything from children (who departed at the end of worship for their own service) to senior adults in the service we were attending.
The worship service seemed to be a blend of contemporary and traditional. It began with a modern version of “Victory in Jesus” which made it a sure pleaser to both kinds of worshippers. The familiarity exuded a deep, almost palpable sense of happiness in my soul. I took a deep breath of the Spirit and sensed Him invite me to make myself at home there this morning. The congregation was so dear. Similar to mine in a lot of ways. Very warm and very worshipful but not overtly demonstrative. (Myself, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool hand-lifter and I certainly feel some freedom of expression at my church and felt that freedom this morning at theirs BUT I also believe in not being a distraction if that’s not necessarily the norm around you. I can dance my heart out before the Lord in my den or on the back porch all I want. I’ve learned along the way that we don’t have to save all of our worship for Sunday morning.)
Then I saw the sweetest moment between a senior adult couple sitting two rows in front of us. It almost put me over the edge. The woman – so gorgeous and so radiant in the Spirit – was familiar to me from Bible study years ago. I’m supposing her husband had battled health problems because he appeared very physically weak, though clearly joyful. Someone told Melissa that they’d been married for sixty years. He sat during praise and worship as she stood beside him, often lifting her delicate right hand before the Lord Jesus from an obvious overflow of love. At one point as the worship leader led us in the stone-melting song “Amazing Love,” the praise was so moving that the man, bent with age and confined to the chair by weakness, lifted both his hands. Just seconds later, his beautiful wife, standing closely to his right, slipped her left hand under his elbow to support what was very likely the sweetest, purest act of worship I may have ever seen. I could not keep from crying.
By this time, the entire congregation was ready for the Word and that is precisely what we got. The senior pastor, Tom Douthit, opened up 1 Corinthians 5 with us and taught us with love, compassion, and well-prepared-for precision, “How To Handle a Scandal.” Utterly fantastic. During the sermon is when Melissa and I almost forgot we were visitors. She and I kinda “do church” like our African American brothers and sisters do at my beloved Franklin Avenue Baptist in New Orleans. When someone’s preachin’ it up, we like to “talk back.” The good kind. Like “OK, now. That’s good. Yep. That’s good. That’s it now. Uh-HUH. Oh, yeah.” I’d go so far as to throw my shoe if I’d be sure someone would give it back. After all, I love my shoes. I nearly had myself worked into a Word-frenzy by the closing prayer. Keith was very quiet for a change. I couldn’t tell how he was taking all of it. Didn’t even hold my hand like he usually does. (And, oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you earlier that he usually not only talks loud during the church service. He also feels compelled to PDA. Light obviously. It somehow brings out the affectionate side of him and he likes to hug me a lot. Go figure.) At the very end of the service, he simply leaned over to me, took my pen out of my hand, and wrote on my program, A+. Yes, indeed.
It was a wonderful morning followed by a wonderful lunch, a nap, time with a novel on the porch, then a sweet – if lop-sided – conversation with you. My beloved Siestas. On the Lord’s Day. I want to close with words to a hymn we also sang this morning in the service. A song I had not sung in corporate worship in a while and the lyrics were so tender and dear to my heart that I fought back the tears the whole time. My memory swung back like a pendulum to my childhood as I could picture my family of eight sprawled down the pew. My grandmother was down to my left, just like usual, and in my memory, I could hear her singing, voice quavering with a mixture of emotion and age. We’d sung “How Firm a Foundation” often in that red-brick church nestled in the Ouachita Hills of Arkansas. As I sung them this side of an adult lifetime of God’s faithfulness, I was nearly overcome with emotion. That buck-tooth little girl with the battered and bruised heart – already long-since abused and deeply confused – had no idea how the words of that hymn would spring to life for her. I share them with you now, not because of what they mean to me but what they may mean to you. Today. Right now. Amid whatever you’re going through. Read every line. Ponder the truth of it. The hope of it. The promise of it. If you know the tune, sing it. Say it, if you don’t. Cry it, if you must.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
The last stanza nearly put me over the edge:
“The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”
(John Keith, 1787; Public Domain)
Is it not wonderful to see how we all praise the Lord the same yet differently! I think this is how it will be in Heaven!
This was just what I needed this morning. Last night I was anxious about many things – but this morning I feel His deep love and promise wrapped around me.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Beth, you had me laughing and crying in this one! I only pray that my hubby and I can be like that dear couple in 60 years!!
Thanks for the laughs this morning!
Oh, yeah. I needed that. The words of that old hymn are perfect for me today.
Plus, it’s somehow comforting to know that Keith doesn’t like to go to church… and it’s OKAY (most of the time)! I also have a believing husband that doesn’t care to attend church service. It took me a number of years to learn it’s better not to force the issue. For a long time, people at my church thought I was single (I’m not sure what they thought the ring on my left hand was all about)! Ah, but from time to time and for certain events and studies, I have a willing companion. Those are sweet times.
My hubby is also like Keith in that he’s a fierce protector of our daughter. The dating years were interesting! Oh, how he’d intimidate those poor boys. They often froze like deer in headlights when coming to call on her!
She was married two years ago. Here’s something to tug at your romantic heart strings:
http://public.fotki.com/POBrien922/a_special_day/
Like Nicole said, thanks for sharing your normalcy with us! You’re a dear and trusted friend.
Oh Beth, that is some good stuff!
I was amazed when I read your experience with the husband/church issue. I get so frustrated with this situation; it takes all the self-control I can muster to not get furious when he skips. I need God’s grace to handle these days “gracefully.” Why do I make such a big deal out of his church attendance? Is it a control issue?
I doubt that my motives are holy and pure. I know myself too well.
This is my second marriage, and it has felt like it has been going down the drain from day one. I got remarried way too soon. I was not ready for this! I have really started to see my failures in the first marriage, and even more so in this one. Please pray for me. It feels hopeless.
The words to this great hymn “How Firm a Foundation”….have been a source of strength to me over these past few months as we have faced some very challenging times in ministry, heartbreaking times actually.
I have to tell you that Sunday night was a wonderful time of Uplifting HIM as I was able to hear Mandesa in person as she sang several songs….. including my favorite “Shackles”….. as she was singing and praising the Lord I was seeing you on stage with her and Travis and the band as you would do that very song so often at LPLive. She spoke about being ‘set free’. What a wonderful platform God has given her to speak of HIM.
We were blessed to hear some incredible music, Newsong sang some of my favorites and then the evening ended on a perfect note….. MercyMe closed out the concert. As we were singing it felt more like a praise and worship time at church than a concert. On the way out of the venue I had others say the same thing to me. They sang ‘ Bring the Rain, and Holy, Holy, Holy. Can you imagine about 13,000 voices singing that? It was beautiful. God is so good!!
There are such incredible messages in music. Thanks Beth for reminding us about the words for ‘ HOw Firm a Foundation’.
I so do love your honesty. I attend a Baptist Church in a very small town in Kentucky. The kind of church if you miss a Sunday you feel that you are not the Christian you should be. Well, my husband is a “Keith” when it comes to going to church. He missed Sunday and once again I was asked “Where’s Brian?” and if you respond with “at home” then you get from a few “Oh, is he sick?”, knowing well they are not concerned if he is sick they just want to hear that he just didn’t come. I am so guilty of pressuring Brian or making him feel bad for not coming. I have even missed myself when he wanted to go camping or just do something fun. I strongly believe as his wife that that is O.K. (submissive!!!). So, I just wanted to say thanks for being so honest. I do have one question though, how can I respond or deal with those that always make a point to ask where Brian is, or questions why we said no to be on another committee?
Thanks again!
Excellent! Both laughter and tears in one post. Just the way I like it!
I needed to hear this today. I’m a minister’s wife and sometimes the road is long and difficult and the most surprising of people wound your spirit. God is good though and through HIM I am learning to love even the toughest of people. Even so I still am happy to go up to the house of the LORD. I just read that this morning in your Psalms study. Must be what I need to hear. Thank you.
I am blessed not only by reading the comments about the church, the sweet couple, the sermon and finally the song – but by your encouragement that resonated in your words about Keith and his going to church – or should I say corporate worship. I for many years when our children were young, went by myself and took them, leaving with a somewhat holier-than-thou attitude toward my husband. Over the years and through much prayer and growth, I have, like you, let him make the decision to go or not to go and then I continue on like it is no big deal. (he is also figitty and acts like he has resless leg syndrome) Anyway, I can see God’s hand moving in him and softening a part of him that only God can do. I love the song – don’t know the tune so I spoke it out loud, several times. It just about covers everything!!!
BEBE
-birddog home from the lease still on hunting time? What kind of crazy Texas are you? I had to read that three times to figure out what the?
I love this blog! Thanks for opening up your day to day life with all the women who have been so blessed through you. I love that you are doing the Breaking Free homework and that it’s on the deck to be updated. It was such a meaningful study for me.
I started my own blog recently and one of my first entries was about my Bible study philosophy and why I’m steadily moving through all the workbooks. If you have the time, here’s the links. The first one is the general thoughts and the next one is summary of Living Free. http://eringracefletcher.blogspot.com/2007/12/why-i-love-beth-moore-workbooks.html; http://eringracefletcher.blogspot.com/2007/12/reflections-from-living-free.html.
So excited for San Diego Conference!
Thanks for the sweet words about my home church BridgePoint Bible. FYI, that sweet older couple you talked about – he became a believer just a couple or so yrs. ago! Mary, his devoted wife (and MANY others!)prayed for him for many years – our pastor Tom led him to the Lord!! He has been struggling with cancer for the last few yrs. and we have all been praying for healing for him. We’ve watched him shrink considerably since he’s been battling cancer! but OH that sweet precious smile!!
Please come and visit us again ANYTIME!!
Siesta Queen,
So this is my first time posting, but today I feel compelled to bless you because as always you have blessed me. This morning as I called out to God and worshiped Him He reminded me of something you told me when I visited Houston and had the fornuate blessing of sitting in the front row last year, about this time actually, at the first session of your Wising Up Bible Study, “If you want what we have here, God will give it to you.” The Holy Spirit has echoed that numerous times to me since. This morning as I was asking God should the gift He gave me be an in-depth Bible Study or a book format, He brought your words to rememberance. Somehow as I went on with my day, I wound up back at your blog and He used your previous post to answer my question. I love Him and how He uses the saints to get a precise message to us. I was so overwhelmed as I read your comments on the effect of lifelong healing that comes from an indepth Bible Study and how He has told me that I will be free when I have the courage to write so others might be free. And you thought your words were just chatter. He has plans for every thing! Lovin’ Him with you. Thank you again for speaking life to me!- Rachel, from D.C.
As I read that today, the filled my heart and mind with so many sweet promises from His word to accompany the lyrics. It was as if He was saying, “It’s true! It’s all true!”
When you share like this I just feel like I am right there. You are amazing at describing what you are seeing and feeling!!
Ahhh! I am a few days late in commenting, but Mama Beth…Thank you so much!
My husband and I are in the middle of a super hard time. He went on a mission trip to Ghana, Africa…because our God called him to go. My husband is a chiropractor. He saw God perform amazing miracle after miracle. Blind now see, mute now speak, lame now walk, a woman with AIDS with only a few weeks to live – completely healed!!! PRAISE JESUS!!!! Even though my husband took the malaria medicine, he contracted Malaria, the worst strand. We almost lost him. God decided to let him be with us a bit longer. However, he had a reaction to one of the drugs, has a damaged liver, nerve damage, and now can not work. He hasn’t been able to care for anyone in a month. All these people healed in Africa and my husband struggles to make it through the day.
As hard as life has been these last 30 days, if we didn’t have a foundation in Jesus, sometimes weak and sometimes firm, I’m not sure where we would be. Thank you for sharing with us about your Sunday! Thanks for reminding us, that no matter what the situation, we always have Jesus, and HE ALWAYS has us in his arms.
I love you Mama Beth!
Kate in Charlottesville
Oh how I love your stories. The always touch my heart, make me smile and always make me laugh.
Your realness blesses me over and over.
Thanks for sharing your heart and your happy day.
It made mine happier.
I pray those words ring loud in my ears all week.
This is my first post, after reading the blog for several months now. I am happy to officially be a siesta! Thanks for sharing your heart with us Beth. Love the song!
Dear Siestas,
Nate and Tricia (who has severe Cystic Fibrosis) and their tiny preemie daughter Gwyneth Rose (1 lb. 6 oz. born at 24 weeks) need our prayers. They have a VERY Firm Foundation in our Lord. Nate’s blog is cfhusband.blogspot.com.
You just described my husband! In fact, if you still lived in Arkansas, I would be suspicious if it wasn’t the same man. Thank you so much for always being so open about everything in your life. You have no idea how encouraging it is to know that Beth Moore goes through the same thing I do every Sunday morning! Although, sounds like you handle it better than I do. I promise I will be thinking of you when I want so bad to nag my hubby this Sunday morning.
Bless you. I love you so much.
Beth,
I just wanted to thank you so much again for sharing your heart with us. I’m not a frequent poster, but rest assured that all your messages have resonated with me.
My new prayer journal by Debbie Williams has arrived and is helping me get my prayer life organized! I don’t forget now to pray for your studies on Tuesday night in Houston or my own that starts this Friday morning. We’re doing some kinda new study – Stepping Up – or something like that. I hope it’s good. 😉
I know the Lord is good and He will speak to all of us through the study of His Word!
Thanks again!
I’m late leaving this but Thank You for this post, especially the song. I’ve never heard it, but it means so much right now. I need to print and keep it.
PDA = Public Display of Affection
(I worked in a high school for 6 years…)
Georgia Jan
Love Y’all
PDA= Public Displays of Affection
Just check out your local high school during passing times for some great examples.
Oh yes, my dear Beth!!
We sang that hymn at my church on Sunday too. I cried through it for the great reminders. I am separated from my husband right now and EVERY WORD in that hymn applied and gave me comfort.
Praise His Holy Name
I know this probably wasn’t the point of your message…but thank you for sharing how “normal” your life is! It makes those of us who have less than perfect lives in Christ feel not so “unwelcome” in Church circles! I know you probably wish Keith went to church more or was more hyped up to go, but it makes you more real and more able to reach those of us whose husbands aren’t walking with the Lord right now. And, it shows me that I can be strong in the Lord whether or not my hubby is.
Thank you for your beautiful heart!
Dear Beth;
I am doing things kind of backwards this week. I read this post on sunday but have been so busy that I did not have time to responded. I did responded to the most recent one because it took hardly any time to put down the requested info. We had a great Lord’s Day. Although it was very busy. I will have done more hospitality this week, than I have done in any given week that I can remember when the week comes to an end. All good though. At church we are starting a series on the book of Ester. Well just wanted to chime in and say how great God. Thank you for being so open and honest. Kim B. in Az
Oh my! How I miss seeing the senior couples. I attend a new-start United Methodist church. Our congregation is relatively young.
We just lost our pastor to another “appointment.” So my job has been to “talk, pray, whatever” and keep the worship service together–moving along–welcoming, greeting, offering, introducing the temporary pastor for the week and on and on. I’ve gotta confess, this is something I could NOT do on my own.
This Sunday, the Holy Spirit was moving BIG TIME!! And let me tell y’all I was never so grateful for His intervention. Praise the LORD for His perfect provision.
Oh,and if you’re inclined to pray Siestas, pray that we get a new, permanent pastor SOON for this new, baby church!!
Love to all,
~Cheryl
Thank you Mrs. Beth for this blog. I want you to know that you blessed an area of my walk that has been a fight in me for a while. Thank you for sharing God’s truth and freedom in just living out loud here in the blog. I know you are just being open, real, and you – I promise you that is more than enough through Him. Thank you for the grace you just showed me. It’s amazing the things we will let hold us and keep us from our destiny in Christ because it’s something we heard traditionally repeated over us or because we think it’s expected. Just by being who you are you opened my eyes to another pit I have allowed myself to be talked into. Thank you, ma’am.
AMEN and AMEN!!!
“-birddog home from the lease still on hunting time? What kind of crazy Texas are you? I had to read that three times to figure out what the?”
THAT is stinkin’ hilarious!!
“T” from Texas
I don’t know what I would do without Sunday Morning Worship. This Sunday our youth band led the Praise & Worship. Although the songs weren’t one of the great hymns of Faith, to me they were examples of modern day hymns. One of the songs they sang talked about letting God guide us through the seas, storms, and fires of life. I found myself weeping unashamedly as I recalled all the times that the Father never left me. You could feel the Holy Spirit in the sanctuary ministering to anyone willing to reach out to the Father! Ms. Beth, thank you for being such a beautiful example of a Proverbs 31 woman. You sharpen me to become all I can for the cause of Christ!
THANK YOU for releasing me from feeling like my husband’s faith has to look just like mine!!!
I have a GREAT husband – but we are so different in how we live out our faith. That post was a bit of a (gentle)slap upside the head. If Beth Moore’s husband doesn’t go to church every Sunday, I guess I’d better cut my guy (who DOES) some slack!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being honest and vulnerable and for never pretending to be perfect. There is enough pretend and fantasy in the world – we need REAL women to be our leaders.
I had to come back and reread this post…actually take the words of the hymn in.
Thank you for your sharing such personal things about your family. You don’t know how closely you mirrored my situation. I’ve struggled a little (ok, a lot) with my husband’s spiritual growth and trying to make him be/act the way I thought he ought to. After 17 years I’ve finally started to focus on me and how I need to change…leaving my husband to God. My husband’s just too much of a man’s man to get into the hand-raising hokie pokie with me.
Amen and Amen…I can see and hear my precious mom singing slighlty out of tune but oh so full of heart! How I miss her so.
Beth, the Bible Church you attended is my old church. I now live in Ft. Worth and truly miss the fellowship there at BridgePoint Bible Church. It is a place where the Word is clearly taught. Tom Douthit is a great pastor! Take your husband back there. My husband loves listening to Tom.
I am well familiar with those twenty to thirty passages in the “author’s” Bible studies and you know what….I wouldn’t want it any other way!!!!!!!!It’s has been life changing for me!!
I am blessed.
I must thank you, Siesta Beth, for your candidness about Kieth and church. I have a hub who TRULY loves Jesus and the Word, but truly is ambivalent about church. Admitedly, I struggle with some shame about this, so I was actually encouraged to hear your story. I, too, have been learning about leaving it ALL to the Lord and waiting on His Spirit to lure this man into such fellowship.
Bless you!! Thank you.
MR
i like your blog
Here I sit at 2:22 am typing with one hand and holding my precious 6 month old in the other, hoping she will realize soon that it is 2am and not 2pm! What else is there to do quietly as my husband and other 3 daughters sleep, but read your blog. I hadn’t been on in awhile to read and that was no accident. Thank you for sharing the words of that beautiful hymn, as a preachers kid I have probably sang it 100x’s but this morning it was like a fresh wind in my still heart. My sister in law ( who knows our Lord) is suffering with stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to her eyes, hip and yesterday we learned it is also in her stomach. This morning she will be having sugery and she lives 8 hours from me. Feeling helpless I can only pray for her. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here, they brought me comfort like a big blanket from the Lord.
Tanya
Cry I must! Beautiful words and for me today it’s nice to know “the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow”.
On Sunday I had the privilege of worshipping with 4000 teenagers at the Tennessee Christian Teen Convention. We were shameless in our worship…dancing in the aisles. It was a blast! There is nothing like children worshipping the King!
Has Tina posted again? My heart squeezed tight when I read her comment. I’m praying for her. Thank God she has a safe place to share.
Beth, you are stinkin’ hilarious. I love reading this blog. And I, too, loved hearing that Keith doesn’t much care to attend church regularly and that you’ve given up trying to make him.
I spoke to a group of women today for the first time. I shared my story of pain, brokenness, healing, forgiveness, and hope. I was (again) so overwhelmed by God’s goodness that the tears just flowed. He has set me FREE!
I am new to your blog but not new to your studies, I love them. Thank you so much for being so honest about Keith not always going to church and not always being thrilled about having to be there, my husband is just like that and he is an avid hunter.
Thanks for reminding me that I am not the only one that struggles with this and that he is not a bad person because of it.
Blessings
351 comments! I’m lucky to get 3 on my blog! 🙂 All these comments are such a testimony to how all us “siestas” just want to do lunch and go shopping with you for shoes.
Anyway, I wanted to add a comment about BridgePoint. I was blessed enough to lead their fall retreat, and I just LOVE their women. The story about the older couple epitomizes their church. I led the retreat on the subject of mentoring, and I loved to see how it was already in place at Bridgepoint. So often the younger women are begging for it, but in this case the older women are stepping up and leading the way.
I love this sweet church, too. And, Beth, I love you and everthing that you have done to introduce women to a deep love for God’s living Word.
Amy
Lorrie Williams
It’s July and I’ve just recently found your blog so I’ve been catching up by reading backwards. I am a fan of your bible studies and have participated in three. I’m sorry but I don’t know how to send you a private email, but I must tell you I’m crying right now. How SWEET is our Lord! I have been in a battle with my faith for years and God is so faithful to me. He hasn’t given up on me when I deserve it. He sends me down my path and allows such godly people to talk to my heart.
I have have an ongoing fight with my husband about his lack of desire to attend church and then blaming my lack of attendance on his…then hold a grudge and feeling like all the “other” christen women in christen marriages don’t have to deal with this. How foolish! The devil lies! And I shamefully have believed him! So foolish!
Thank you (gratefully) for your ministry and encouragement.
All praise to our Precious Savior, Jesus Christ