Siesta Summer Bible Study (Introduction) from LPV on Vimeo.
*If you’re having trouble viewing the video, you may need to download a newer version of Adobe Flash Player. You can get it here. Thanks for the tip, Adrienne!
Hey, Siestas! Let’s kick off some summer Bible study, why don’t we? I’m a little over-excited, too, but hold up before you write back! DON’T COMMENT YET! Your comments to this post are meant to FOLLOW your group meeting as a way of sharing a highlight about your time together. Again, please DO NOT WRITE COMMENTS until after you meet. If you’re participating solo, please watch the video first and do the exercises for yourself, THEN comment with your brief responses.
Here’s how it goes:
Please watch the eleven minute video for instructions for your small group and, if you can’t watch it together, no big deal! Each of you try to give it a look before your meeting. These videos will be posted indefinitely, so it’s no problem if your group can’t meet until later in the week. I’ll always write the instructions in the post just like I did last summer in case anybody has technical difficulty watching the video.
Here are your 3 interactive exercises for today:
1. An icebreaker just so we can have the opportunity to be ridiculous: What breed of dog do you most resemble in demeanor and why? If you don’t know your dog breeds, describe your demeanor to your group and let them help you.
2. This one will help us get to know one another’s priority needs right now. Get out a pen and paper and craft a one-sentence text message with a limit of 160 characters that starts with (and includes) these words: Please pray for me. I…
3. Have one group member read Psalm 19 out of The Message to the rest of the group. (See below) After she reads the whole psalm, have members lock in on the section that describes what the Word of God (called by other names such as “revelation”) does for us. Mention each benefit of studying Scripture and have group members who have discovered one of those benefits give short and specific testimonies as an encouragement to the rest.
You’ll pray and dismiss then designate ONE GROUP MEMBER to comment with a report about your group. Please limit the comment to a normal size paragraph. Each member will then complete Weeks One and Two of homework in their Me Myself & Lies member-book by our second gathering in two weeks. If you can’t get all your homework accomplished, meet anyway! A little Bible study is FAR BETTER than no Bible study! Thank you so much for participating!
I love you like crazy.
Beth
Psalm 19
A David Psalm
1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.
6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.
7-9 The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
down to the nth degree.
10 God’s Word is better than a diamond,
better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
better than red, ripe strawberries.
11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
My group is a group of 1, so far. I have asked 7 others to join with me, and gotten 1 taker so far….but she cannot start yet. So it's me, for now. I am a Morkie (Maltese/Yorkie) because I am scruffy, love affection (receiving and giving) and will growl and nip when sleepy! Ps 19 is awesome and brought me to tears. I know the power of God's word, yet fail to drink it consistently.
So looking forward to this study…I posted the intro questions on my blog: http://sandeefamily.blogspot.com/2009/06/summer-bible-study.html
Our group met last night and started the study at about 10pm… at DENNY'S 🙂 We requested a nice big booth and were fortunate to have an extremely sweet, understanding waitress (new to the job, even! she did awesome). We found that in our group we have a Maltese (Lauren- bubbly, friendly, a just a tad high-maintenance); a beagle/cocker spaniel mix (Becky- loud, always barking, low maintenance but just a bit girly); a border collie (Andi- loyal, protective, smart); and a golden retriever (Jennifer- athletic, loyal, hard working). We loved the study and were challenged by taking an honest look at our own thought closets, and realizing that we had "garments" in there that need to go in the "What not to wear" trash barrel! We closed in prayer, lifting one another up, as the more "traditional" midnight Denny's crowd looked on in curiousity 😉
Ok, group had my meeting with "Me", "Myself", $ "lies" – i mean "I". I am like a Min-Doc dog. hyper and always digging! My text message was something like this – "Plse pray 4 me &my fam. Husband's company 2 lay-off 900 employees. My encouraging word – He who created the Heavens and the Earth, knows what is going on and can handle anything. His power is in the beauty of the skies in the daylight or at night. Nature around us speaks to His power. His commandments challenge us to live life His way. May everything I do or say bring honor and glory to Him!
Please pray for me. I need to fully surrender to God and His will, regardless of how painful or difficult it may be. Pray for me. I need to witness to my son and his wife and make them realize that, without Jesus, there is only loss.
maria cristina
My very good friend Karen and I met together yesterday and had a wonderful time with the Bible study. We had a great time of sharing and prayer. We're looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us with this study!
Shelley
Springfield, Missouri
Hello. I have been unable to do the first lesson all the way through, but it started out great. I watched the video and read Psalm 19. Wonderful Passage.
I have a prayer request that I hope you will all pray for. Last night as I was preparing to do my first lesson, right after I had read Psalm 19, I got a phone call from my sister. Her best friend committed suicide. I was stunned. I went to my sister to talk to her. I didn't really know what to say as I have never faced this situation before. I gave her the Psalm 19 to read and asked her to do this study with me. I am hoping that she will. Please pray for my sister and for the family her friend left behind. I pray that God will use this terrible thing to show just how loving and merciful He is. Thank you all and I will be starting this study within the next few days
Love to you all,
Melissa
Our group met on Tuesday. It was honest, transparent and so genuine. I am really excited for what God is going to do through this study. Everyone in our group is ready to get to work with God.
The text thing was amazing! Everyone took that so seriously! There were many tears but it was SO good.
Please pray that God would continue to open our eyes and our hearts to His word and that we would be changed.
I'm going solo for this study.
The thought I appreciated most from Ps. 19 was "The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy." My ways fail, but God's ways are right and HE brings me joy. I just need to seek Him.
My prayer was "Please pray for me, I need Jesus for patience, joy, renewed purpose and contentment in being a wife and mom."
I'm looking forward to the study, and I am thankful for an opportunity to study the Word this summer, if even in a more non-traditional way. Thanks for offering this!
It's Thursday and we had our first meeting this morning! (Thursdays fit our schedules better.)
What an awesome subject — especially for women! We are so looking forward to refining our thinking habits and self-talk. After all, we ARE daughters of the Most High!
Well, checking in a bit late. This week is extremely busy, and I am recovering from helping with VBS last week.
I am excited about this study. I read the book earlier this year and loved it!
Please pray 4 me, I am 6mo out of counseling & trying to figure out how to live now free of a lot of pain from my past, fight depression & anxiety at times & have a sense He is preparing me for some sort of ministry.
I love this translation of ps. 19… and can't wait to really get into this study.
God bless,
Heather,
Solo in Mosinee, WI
We were so amazed at God's perfect timing for this study for each of our lives. There are 5 of us doing this study. We are all in the same season of life married under 10 years and all with young children. Each one of us is desperate to meet with the Lord through this study for reasons varying from lack of affection for our husbands, to patience with our kids, to depression, to absolutely no joy in our lives right now. And since we all stay at home with our kids full time, we are starting to see how beneficial it is to have some accountability and to be able to confess some of the lies that we have all been believing! Lord, pour out your Spirit on us in a huge way! Blessings from Platte, South Dakota
My daughter and I are meeting in our living room, amidst the chaos of siblings and TV's and computer's and a husband. We've managed to do numbers 1-3 and still communicate privately so that our needs can be met. Neither of us has read the Message before and are looking forward to comparing it to the NIV.
Thanks for helping us along this summer!
Julie and Adrienne
I love Psalm 19. It brought hope in times of trial and was refreshing to my soul. Love it already!!!!
Hi Beth (and all you lovely Siesta's)!
I just got home from my first meeting with my great group :o) Susan, Lynn, Jan and I met at Golden Corral where we had the back room all to ourselves….thank you Lord! :o) We hadn't planned that, but apparently He did! We had a nice meal together then took off with our 3 little activities. Jan breeds dogs so we spent quite a bit of time talking dogs and which ones we felt were most like us….we have a couple of golden retrievers , a lasa apso (I so just murdered the spelling of that one) and a yorkie in our group! We shared our prayer requests….but you know as I was driving home I realized we FORGOT TO PRAY!!! :::sigh::: I'll pray extra in the morning. :o) Then we enjoyed Psalm 19 from The Message. I think it was vv. 11-14 that spoke to us the most…"Keep us from STUPID SINS, from thinking we can TAKE OVER YOUR WORK"….I love how that's worded. Straight to the point. We'll meet again in 2 weeks for more dinner and the word :o)
Becky
Jefferson, GA
We met this evening and had an aweesome time just getting to know each other outside of our separate ministries in which we serve. We met in the youth room (I'm the youth pastor's wife and we have a lot of couches, so we took over!) at our church and had a blast figuring out our dog breeds. (Most of us were golden retrievers) It was really neat to hear individual spiritual needs in the prayer text and it really helps us to direct our prayers a certain way. My women loved the fact that the Message version of Psalm 19 talked about strawberries! We are so excited to see what God will be doing for and in us this summer!
Heather, Shannon, Ashley, and me (Alison) are in Louisville, KY doing the study. We are 31, 32, 27and 31. We met tonight and had a good first session. We also had rice chips and cookies!! 🙂
Lori & Katie here…. 🙂
For me (Lori) the reputation of God has been my stronghold since I was a small child. Long before I ever had a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I have known and felt the presence of God in my life. I can remember as a small child asking God or Jesus to please hold me hand so that I could fall asleep and truly felt the hand of God in my own hand until I would fall asleep. It wasn't until 18 years later that I actually had a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but He has always been there for me.
Katie's turn here…For me the part that truly stuck out for me was that "The revelation of God is whole and pulls our life together." I have recently come back into relationship with God because of his reminder of all the wonderful things he has given me including my life and that it was not my place to be without him. His Word sticks with me always and I can never be without it, even if I try! But by his grace and mercy and love He has accepted me forever and His Word will continue to be with me for the rest of my life.
Our blog group is off and running. Every day we post something that impacted us about that day's lesson and then others post comments on that. SO neat!!!! What a blessing. Thanks so much for bringing us all together!!!
My girls and I just had our first meeting at my house. There were only two who could join me for this first time together but there will be more at our next meeting. Katie, a dear mentor of mine, and Valerie, a new friend,came to Christie's house,me. We discovered that you really can pick a breed of dog that matches who you think you are. Then we texted our messsages to one another. We read Psalm 19 and were touched by the breath of God speaking His word to our hearts. We ate pizza, fellowhipped and then prayed together before returning to our families. This is going to be a blessed time with God, and with all of our siestas.
The Owen Valley Christian Fellowship group met this evening, viewed the video, laughed, prayed and just talked this evening. We each talked about the part of Psalm 19 that was speaking the most to us at this time.
Danay'e Taylor
Spencer, Indiana
Our group met tonight, and we had four people meet, 2 couldn't make it, and then we have one joining us via a blog from GA. We had a good time fellowshiping and telling one another our needs. We felt like God's Word is mainly what can keep us going through very difficult times – losing people to death or just not connecting with others at church.
Our group (Allison, Brenda, Erin, Kim, Raelyn, Gabi, Emily, Angela, Renee – and Katie, who was icky sick and home on her bathroom floor) met, introduced ourselves, ate brownies, watched the video, did the interactives, shared, fellowshiped and are now really looking forward to diving into this study. :o)
And more brownies.
Please pray for me and my daughter, we need GOD's strength and guidance. My husband killed himself in March and we are trying to pull our lives back together.
Psalm 19 is so fitting for us at this time. He and His word are what have kept us! He has been so faithful through all of this! I just cannot begin to tell you how awesome He is to us!
{How great is this? Both my friend Abby and I thought we would do this study solo (she's in TX, I now live in TN.) BUT she mentioned it to me during an email conversation today and we realized we *could* do it together, just on the phone! Annnnd, even better, we first met and became best friends through a Beth Moore Bible study hosted by our church in TX. Now we've come full circle! I love how God works…}
The dog questions definitely was so funny. We established that Abby is a labradoodle {athletic yet prissy at times} & I'm a wounded golden retriever {love people but still wary of others}. We both need prayer in the area of self-control: in our spiritual lives, in our marriages & in our exercise/diet. We're both wanting some conviction in that area! Digging through Psalm 19 was a treat and we uncovered that the Word of God: teaches, reminds us of our dependence, disciplines, revives a passion for Him, helps shape our decisions, satisfies us in a pure & innocent way, brings JOY and provides certainty in the day to day.
Abby & I are so excited to see where this study takes us!
We just met for the first time today in Kearney, NE. We had 10 kids running around playing, but still got to watch the video and have an awesome time of prayer and fellowship. Thanks for putting this together! What a blessing it is to be in God's Word this summer! Please pray for one of our group members (Susie) who is leaving for India on a missions trip this Saturday for 2 weeks!
I think I put this comment on the wrong post so here it is again. Our group is meeting on-line. Our Group is called, "True Vibe"
We are from all over the US – Canada and one from Nepal. Here are a list of the ones that have checked in so far and the dogs we have come up with.
Thanks Beth for this study, and the ladies at True Vibe for hosting our group.
Heidi – Bradford, ON
Bev – Stayton, OR – Newfoundland
Jill – ___, Missouri – St Bernard
Jenn – ___, Nepal – Dalmation
Cathey – ___, Ohio – Boston Terrier
Lynn F – Red Deer, AB – Labrador Retriever
Melissa – ____, OH – ?
Gretchen – Thousand Oaks, CA – Great Dane ?
Sam – Wichita, TX – German Shepherd
Lynn R – Milwaukie, OR – Labrador Retriever
Michele – Bradford, ON – Labrador Retriever
Glynda – ___, IL – ?
June – Bradford, ON – Labrador Retriever
Nightingale – Miami, FL – Poodle
Leslie – Atlanta, GA – ?
Madelin – ___, CA – ?
Mildred – Mahomet, IL – Labrador Retriever
I think the Labradors are taking charge. 🙂
Blessings from the "True Vibe" Group – Collage Picture to come soon.
I'm going solo so it was interesting to try and do the icebreaker by myself! 🙂
Golden Retriever, definitely! I love to be around people, but mostly I just love to have "hands on" contact with those I love.
***********************
11-14 There's more: God's Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool?
This passage is precious to me because when I was completely bonkers in habitual sin, God's Word never stopped ringing in my ears. I grew up loving it and studying it so when I chose to venture off of God's best path for me, I could never completely wig out because He truly never let go of me during that time. Yes, I made huge mistakes and fell deep into sin, but because of God's Word the pit I was in had a bottom and when I hit it…his arm was definitely not too short to save me!
Can't wait to dig into this study!!
Blessings,
Dori
Please pray for me to finally put 2death the voice that tells me what I am not & can’t do & listen 2 the One who tells me who I am & what I can do thru Christ!
***********************
"
We met Thursday night, and will continue doing so. Four of us were here (me, Jenn, Ashley & Amanda), and two others will be here from now on (Joelle & Ashley). We spent time catching up since it's been several weeks since we've seen each other. We watched Beth's movie. Very nice. Then we took a picture for the guest book. We also made a video clip for it but it wouldn't let me load it so you just got the pic. Then we worked on getting friended up on facebook. We're going to make a facebook group for our study. And we're looking forward to our homework and seeing each other again in two weeks.
Our group of three met and had a fantastic discussion time. Thanks, Beth, for the interactive exercises – it helped to keep us on track. Our ages range from the 50s, 40s, to teenage! I am so inspired that my friend’s teenage daughter has decided to join us this summer. I have found in composing this post to report back is going to be as hard as trying to give prayer requests within a 160 character text message, so edit as you feel led, Amanda:
1) All of us felt God’s perfect timing was all over this study.
2) Victoria is in the band in high school and made an interesting observation when we talked about what kind of dog we are most like. She said the members of her band tend to have personalities like their instruments. LOL
3) What a great time reading Psalm 19 and discussing what God’s Word does for us. Here are just a few of the many truths we gleaned:
>Creation declares His glory and His Word warns and gives reward—God has revealed all we need to know and we are to follow in obedience. We will be as Paul said, “without excuse†(Rom. 1:20).
>The Word revives and restores the soul—we need to sweep our minds clean and put our spiritual house in order as when the unclean spirit left the demon possessed man in Luke 11:24-26, 35-36. We are not to fill this space with uncleanness or worldliness again or we will be worse off than the first. We are to be careful to make sure the light within us is not darkness (v. 35).
>His Word endures forever and God is with us always, in both the good and bad times. (Job 1:21-22, 2:10—we must not sin with our lips or charge God with wrong). We need to remember to give Him praise as well as petition.
>God is trustworthy and we need to look to Him to satisfy our soul. It is good to refer to secular books but more profitable to compare Scripture with Scripture because the Bible is God-breathed. Do we find teachings that are repeated throughout the Bible? Don’t use the Bible to confirm what we think is true, but to conform us to Him.
We are excited to begin this time in God’s Word!
Johnnie, Christy and Victoria
Wake Forest, NC
going solo.
1. I most resemble a mixed breed."no matter what the situation is I take it with a grain of salt."
2.Please pray for me. I need to be still and know God.
3. God's word is the only way to true joy.
Glynda in IL
We've recently moved and I don't know anyone in my area so I'm going solo but wanted to say how much I've LOVED the study so far. I have a blog and have posted about the study and my thoughts on it so far. I may be able to pick up some friends through that. Week 1: Day 1 was absolutely AWESOME. I couldn't wait to post a blog about what I'd gotten out of it. Looking forward to the rest! Thanks so much for this!
http://www.laurenandeddie.blogspot.com
Late – but engaged! I am flying solo but surrounded by many Siesta's! I'm a lab – friendly and loyal. Good companion, excellent with kids and very loving!
SuzieM in England, U.K. I was sent an extra book by accident and the company told me to keep it. If you'd like it e-mail your address to me at [email protected] and I will send it to you. -Cynthia Cook
We met on Thursday so excited to be back in the Word in a more organized way! LOL We especially loved the Message version of Psalm 19…The Word is our "connection…our truth…perspective…food…jewels…joy…direction…life! Can't wait for the homework.
HI Siestas! Our group decided to meet on Thursday this week – here on out we will meet weekly on Wednesday so pardon our late post. Last night Roxanne, Nancy, Gloria, Emily and I met (a few other Siestas are scheduled to join us next time). I'm guessing that the age range in our group is from late twenties to fifties and we're meeting in Houston.
A few of my thoughts about our meeting: Thank you Lord for sweet laughter with women who were strangers in this world before we began but sisters with shared history in Christ. Thank you for gracing us with intimacy that overshadowed our nascent relationship. Thank you for real, raw sharing. Thank you for the bringing together an interdenominational group of gals who are all excited about you! Thank you for our hunger; stir us Lord we pray. We love you Jesus! Amen!
Holly in Houston
Rankin Girls decided that we were quite the dog pack. We've got a jack russell, a yorkie, a german shepard and a golden retriever!
Our prayer requests centered around family: finances, salvation, etc.
For Psalm 19 we enjoyed it becuase it was great to be reminded that the Word changes us into His image and that is like a great movie: scorching deserts, melting ice, leaping husbands, danger, treasure, diamonds and sweet strawberries.
I so needed to read "keep me from my stupid sins" I pray that the Holy Spirit will help me work on all my stupid sins. I love Jennifer I have several of her books. A sweet Christian woman!
Love ya,
Stacey
Atlanta,TX
We are five women who have gathered together once a month for dinner and other fun stuff for over 2 years. One of us has moved to Groton, CT and we have decided to meet via Skype. We met for the first time today (6/26/09). We are excited to delve into God's word and learn how to fill our thought closets with His Truth!
We had such a wonderful time this morning doing the Bible study. It was wonderful to have the girls back together in God's Word. Denise, Nickie, Kara, Leinaala and I talked like it was the first day of school and we hadn't seen each other all summer! Our prayer requests seemed to take up most of the time allotted by the babysitter, but we really learned each others needs, and how we can help each other through.
We're in different stages of our lives, some with young kids struggling to keep our heads above the water, and others with kids finding independance, unsure of what direction their lives will be taking now.
Thank you thank you for this ladies. What a true blessing from God!!
Stephanie
Lancaster, PA area
Hi – I'm doing this Bible study solo – but I'm lookig forward to learning from all the collected wisdom here!
What breed of dog? – Golden retriever – fun, loving, kind, faithful & sympathetic
Text – pls pray 4 me, I…have the only job in our family & I'm struggling
Ps 19 – What jumped out to me is that the Word will point out the right road and show the way to joy – two things that I have need of in my life right now!
Martha
Two of our four met on Th. (And had some great bagel sandwiches, by the way)
We are a motorcycle mama with grown kids and a mama of two preschoolers. We had a great time together.
Our prayer requests were similar and could probably summarized in a single word: narrowing. Her's was about focus for a specific task God has caller her out of her comfort zone to do. Mine is for right priorities…in family life, in ministry and in time.
Appropriatly we both liked the verse that says:
The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together.
My best friend Kim and I are doing this study together via Internet and telephone. We both teach 2 to 3 women's Bible studies ourselves during the school year, so we are glad to be the students this time and we're glad it is low pressure in that we don't have to prepare a lesson, prepare a room, fix coffee, etc.! But we're excited to be studying the Bible for all the reasons we found in Psalm 19. I say all this to say that when we talked through our intro lesson on the phone today, our brains were a little fried and anybody listening to us would have thought we were Bible illiterates! I've just finished a week of Vacation Bible School and she heads out for a week of youth camp tomorrow, so… you do the math! Talking about what kind of dog we were was a little over the top for us! But, hey, we still love being a part of the study and we're pumped!
Kay (Sierra Vista, AZ)
Kim (Mabank, TX)
dog personas: vivian is a cow dog. She is very protective and loyal,in a good way. Michele is a chocolate lab because I am friendly, outgoing, and protect of my territory. Text mess: Please pray for us so we will let God to be in control and that we are exactly where he wants us to be. Psalm 19: God's works and words are pure and unequal to anything we can imagine. Enjoying our time together Siestas we send you all a great big hug!!!
We met today at a park. So refreshing to reflect on Psalm 19 and all His word does for us. God's word brings life to all our senses. ("Truth is spoken everywhere", "warming hearts to faith", "plain and easy on the eyes", "better than strawberries".)
Even with all His word does for us we all agreed "stupid sins" still get us. Praise Him for his grace & mercy.
Hi Siestas!!
Just checking in after our amazing bible study 🙂 All four of us met, ate chocolate, shared fellowship, and had a blast with that ice breaker 🙂 Our group contains a Greyhound, Goldan Retriever, St. Bernard, and a chihuahua. What a funny bunch 🙂 We even had a dog book there to help us find our exact match! Psalm 19 seemed to be just the right Bible verse to minister to us all in our own way 🙂 What a blessing! I pray that all of you other siestas feel as blessed as I do today with my wonderful study buddies and this great Bible Study!!
Just jumped into the study. Printed out the first week (book is on the way) and have completed three days. I love it and I need it. Going solo right now and will be asking a buddy to join me.
I believe I am a mutt mix, short haired and non alergenic.
I am crafting my text into a prayer for our lovely daughter who has walked away from the Lord's truth. It cuts deep, but My Jesus is so Mighty and His plans and thoughts are truly beyond my comprehension.
Psalm 19 from the Message translation will be printed out and posted on my bathroom mirror.
I pray that all the siestas feed on His Word, and feel the power of Him as He transforms our minds.
I love you Beth,
Celeste
Laguna Niguel, CA
We met last night for the first time, and we are a group of 2 Golden Retrievers, 1 Labrador, 1 Australian Shepherd, 1 Shitzu-Bichon mix, and 1 extremely lovable Mutt.
We had the most fun, and are so excited to be back together again this summer for MML. Our greatest collective prayer request is to be refreshed by the Word, to see our "want-to" return full force, and to be true encouragers to one another.
Thank you, Beth, for facilitating this study for us. We can't wait!!!
We met via email and decided that the dog breeds we most represent are a jack russell and a dachshund. Our please pray for mes were to reign my thoughts in and not be so controlling and to please pray for me…I am constantly worrying and anxious (particularly about work). We look forward to the study.
Leighanne and Jennifer
We had a good first meeting. We are a group of 4 (although one was not with us for this meeting) preschool teachers who work together daily, therefore we know each other fairly well. I appreciated your icebreaker, because it allowed us to talk about ourselves in ways that we normally wouldn't. We also loved the scripture. Particularly the portion about God warning us of danger, helping us find our way, and keeping us from playing the fool. Who doesn't need that?
The Bristol, TN-VA siestas meet Friday morning at a coffee shop. We are a small group of four but there were only three yesterday as one member was out of town. We had a delightful time enjoying the scones, cinnamon buns, coffees and especially each other.
We had some good laughs learning about each other as we tried to decide what kind of dog we were most like. One member had asked her husband what he thought she was and we thought it was very telling that he used her positive traits while she used her negative traits in identifying her dog personality.
We shared our prayer requests and prayed for each other over these requests. We also wrote each others requests down to pray for them throughout the study.
As we read and did the activity for Psalm 19, I think we were all struck by "Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work" as we realized how much we try to do things on our own so much of the time.
We also listened to Jennifer's video "Three Lies Women Believe" and her song based on Psalms 19:14. They were a great way to get to know her more.
We laughed, talked, shared concerns, laughed some more, signed one member up for facebook, and were so blessed just to be spending time together. We are all so very thankful for the opportunity to do this study.
I'm doing this study with my mom, my best girlfriend, and her mom. We're in our 40s and 60s, and live all the way across the country from one another! It will be a wonderful way to stay connected, and we've already emailed our answers to the first video's questions.