Hey, Sweet things!
It’s Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend and I’ve had a really full but good day. Not that great a week, really, but a mighty good day. God woke me up with a release this morning from something that has been pressing on my heart. I just sort of heard a “Stop it” from God so I decided to stop it. Anyway, I thought I’d end the work week up visiting with you guys a bit before we lock this place up for three days. I will probably say hi before the weekend is over but I’ll have to see how the unplanned festivities go. For now, it is pouring a deluge in South Texas so whatever we’re doing, it is decidedly not out doors. No telling what my two dogs have done to my house while I’ve been at work today. (Star, my Border Collie, has been keeping Geli, Keith’s bird dog, company lately when the really hot weather prevents Keith from taking her with him in his truck. I can’t bring both of them to work without mass pandemonium.)
Before I head to another topic, I want to tell you that you really knocked it out on that last post and I’m so proud of you. Way to tell a girl how she can know God loves her. I watched some real live ministry take place on that last post (and so many others before it). I believe in the ministry that takes place here. I couldn’t have fathomed it in advance but our gracious God has lurked here and so many other places on the web and I am so much the better off for it. You know, you guys are the only reason I’ve never done the Facebook thing. I’ve always wanted to. Are you kidding? What sanguine wouldn’t? But I thought I’d end up getting so distracted by it that I’d lose my vision here. I’m so blessed to be a part of you and, for now, you are one of my biggest serving priorities.
And that’s the reason why I need to stop and say something in protection of this precious, hardworking, sincere and tenderhearted community. We exist to encourage one another to know Jesus Christ as personal Savior and to follow hard after Him. We love big doses of healthy, good, clean fun. We love to laugh. We don’t mind having a good hard cry together. BUT, we can’t consistently be a ton more than that. We can’t replace face-to-face families to many people and certainly don’t exist to take the place of our local churches. Few of us are confused about that. Here’s why I’m bringing all this up. I don’t want you to start getting worn out here or start feeling like there’s such a heavy weight of responsibility that you can’t even bear to log in. I don’t want you feeling guilty or condemned because you couldn’t read every single person’s comment. None of us can. None of us can be anybody’s everything. Let me say that again:
None of us can be anybody’s everything.
To attempt it is to play Christ. To demand it is to expect somebody else play Christ. Minister here freely and freely feel ministered to. Freely give, freely receive, the Scriptures would tell us. But do not let this place become a burden or a form of bondage to you. I just can’t have that. I speak for most of us when I say that what I write here on these posts is to every single one of you, new and old. You do the same when you write general responses. When you or I get a chance to shout something out to someone in a comment, it is never because we found her worthier than anybody else. I don’t have favorites on here. I really don’t as much as we sometimes tease. You don’t either. I also don’t get to read every single comment. Neither does Melissa or Amanda. Neither do most of you. Please know that this community exists to bring you encouragement. Not to add to your insufferably long list of things to do nor, worse yet, to add to a feeling of insignificance. Lord, forbid it. All of you are so loved and welcomed here. I would be heartsick for anybody to get on this blog that was formed to build you up and feel torn down.
By all means, please let your Siestas know when you legitimately need prayer and edification or just a big fat hug. Ask your questions! (I LOVED Erica’s question!) Seek some solid insight! Get together on the side. That’s what this place is for. But I say this to anyone with an intense emotional issue (Believe me, I’ve been there and have sought sound Godly counsel and highly recommend it): please don’t demand more (and more and more) from this sincere community than most women on here can give. Please be careful not take advantage of my girls here in Siestaville. They’ll bend over backwards for you. Don’t put more on them than they can handle or expect of them what they can’t deliver. It is my responsibility to be protective of this community. With all my heart I pray that this will remain one of the very few places in many of our lives where we don’t have to feel guilty and like we’re not enough for people. Please, not here. I say that with love. And if your comments get posted on these entries, you’re probably not who I’m talking about. Let me say frankly that there is a reason why we moderate comments.
Ladies, as you minister on your own blogs and as you participate here, please keep in mind that people can play you. One way you’ll know is if they just keep on and on with it and no answer and no encouragement ever suffices. Sometimes you can just feel it in your gut. That doesn’t mean they don’t need love and prayer and attention. It just means you don’t need to get caught up in a loop. We aren’t meant to take the place of professional counselors.
I love you guys so much. God has placed the stewardship of this community in my hands. I’m the Mama here. And sometimes mamas have to lay some boundaries. This is for your protection.
OK, some of you may not be able to get past that but for those of you who can, this is the real reason why I got on here today. I don’t know why but I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandmother lately. Maybe it’s because I’m a grandmother now and I’ve seen some life come full circle. Whatever the reason, she’s been in my thoughts more than usual recently. My grandmother was widowed when my mom was just fourteen. Four years later, Mom met my Dad and fooled around and eloped with him. When they got back to town, my mother’s mom got revenge I suppose by moving right in with them. She didn’t move out until her mansion was ready in Heaven. I was sixteen years old at the time. Translation? She lived with my siblings and me all our young lives. And, boy, was she a character.
Her name was Minnie Ola Rountree. With a smirk on my face, 30 years ago I suggested to Keith that we name our first daughter after her but he didn’t go for it. Minnie Moore. Don’t you think that would have been darling? Anyway, to us she was “Nanny.” (Not our first child. My maternal grandmother.) She was born before the turn of the 20th Century and lived long enough to ride a horse-driven carriage to town and watch a man walk on the moon. She believed until the day she died that we had a party line (you young Siestas don’t even know what that is. It’s not direct dial to Party City) and would stand over us when we talked on the phone for more than five minutes and say, “Get off that phone! Someone’s probably needin’ an ambu-lance with you on there chewing the fat!”
There were eight of us in all and by the time Dad would let us get two phones in the house (on the same number, of course), Nanny decided if she couldn’t beat us, she’d join us. We’d be on one phone with our boyfriends and she’d be on the other just listening in. You’d walk through the kitchen and there she’d be, sipping on her perked coffee, tuning in like it was her business. Oh, man, she dearly loved gossip. Watched her “stories” on the black and white from noon til 3:00 and only President Kennedy better interrupt her and, even then, it better be good.
She’d been raised in the country and mostly by her big sister. Her second parent was cold in the grave before she was out of grade school. Once a tall, educated man happened through those parts and took a liking to her and married her before she could think better of it. I guess she loved him more than anything in her entire life. His name was Micajah Rountree. They had seven children together. And buried three of them. Under two and a half years-old. Can you even comprehend it? She told me once that every woman she knew with a large family had gone through the terrible agony of at least one loss. They couldn’t have imagined medical care like we have today. In the cemetery where she is buried, she is one of many moms laid to rest near the graves of infants. It’s almost too much to bear to see.
But they had many good times together, too. My grandfather was quite the catch, becoming a mighty fine lawyer and serving in State government. He probably would have been a man of means if not for the Great Depression. Family legends made him bigger than life to me and, even though I never knew him, I set out to be just like him, majoring in political science and minoring in English. God ended up having other plans but not before the man’s legacy had left his mark. I am told he never saw his left palm for a book in his hand. My mom was just like him. I am just like her. Amanda and Melissa are just like me. We live to read. We are so amused that Annabeth can’t put a book down. Rountree blood has trickled down five generations.
My grandmother was a smart woman but her formal education did not quite match her man’s. We moved that woman out of the country but we never moved the country out of that woman. And we are so glad. She used sayings that my siblings and I still employ on a continual basis. When we moved all the way from Arkansas to Houston, Texas (I was 15), her world split wide open. She’d never been to a city you could call a melting pot. She’d say, “Don’t them ferners beat all!” Ferners = someone born in a different country. Of course, what Amanda and I love best about Houston is that it’s such a glad mix of ferners but that’s our taste. Nanny didn’t quite know what to do with such a big world. She never understood that they were just as American as she was.
My favorite thing she ever said – and she said it CONSTANTLY – was this: “Some folks, you just can’t learn ’em nothin’.” (Please use a long “a” sound on the “can’t.” It’s more like “cain’t.”)
I don’t want to be one of them folks that you can’t learn nothin. I want to keep learning as long as I live. Don’t you?
Now that I’ve talked on this long, I might as well tell you what’s kind of had me down this week. For the last several months, we’ve been working on the up-dated version of “A Heart Like His.” (Do not even talk to me about my hair in that video. Believe it or not, I did not do that hair. Another story for another time. Anyway, I happen to really love who fixed that hair so I’m going to keep my mouth shut.) I’ve enjoyed being back in the study of the life of David so much. Scripture doesn’t get any wilder or richer or more applicable than 1st and 2nd Samuel. What’s gotten to me over the last few weeks is not what I said in the original written version (17 years ago!). It’s what I didn’t say. Lord have mercy, I had just come out of one of the worst trials of my entire life. I cannot even express the pain I’d been through or the defeat that had threatened to engulf me. But try as you might, you could not find a single hint of it. (My Nanny would say, “Narry a hint.”)
“Woman,” I said to myself as I was recently reading through the original version and updating it, “Where on earth is your testimony about the grace of God over your pitiful, messed up life? Huh? Huh?” At one point, I read such a down-played version of some misery that I’d been in that I wrote out in the margin, “Rewrite, you big liar!”
It wasn’t really a lie. But it didn’t even begin to measure my true estate. As I’ve read over some of the early writings, I can still see a woman who wasn’t sure she could yet be herself. Thank God, the Scriptures speak loudly and clearly and they’re all we really need. But most of us could use a teacher who owns up to her own struggles and own defeats. Most of us need to know we’re in this together. Way back when I originally wrote “A Heart Like His,” I think I was too close to the fresh graces of God to truly recognize them. I hear a crescendo after that in studies like “To Live is Christ” but, not coincidentally, I don’t hear the full throttle, volume 10 testimony of what God had done for me until “Breaking Free.” There’s an obvious reason for that.
For some reason that missing element broke my heart yesterday. I’d teared up over it several times as I edited “A Heart Like His” but finally yesterday I just got up from my desk, went face down on the floor and bawled my eyes out before God. “I am so, so sorry.”
Praise His Name, He really does grow us up in knowledge and in grace. He is so patient. So merciful. But just in case some of you have only done one of the earliest unrevised Bible studies and didn’t hear it as clearly as you should have, hear me clearly today: GOD IS THE ONLY REASON WHY I CAN HOLD MY HEAD UP LONG ENOUGH TO DRAW A BREATH. ANYTHING IN MY LIFE OF VALUE IS FROM HIM ALONE. HE IS MY DECENCY. HE IS MY ONLY HONOR. WITHOUT HIM, I’M A TOTAL WRECK. I DO NOT DESERVE TO BE IN MINISTRY. I DID NOT EARN IT. ALL THAT I HAVE TO OFFER IS HIM.
He’s it. Plain and simple. Gorgeous and complex.
Some folks, you just cain’t learn ’em nothin.’ And I don’t want to be one of them. Lord, protect me from myself.
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18
Beth, I thank our precious Lord for your precious heart everyday. No one ministers to me the way you do. I have learned so much! Don’t get me wrong, I love my pastor. He does a mighty fine job as well, but God has used your words unlike any other to get to my heart. Since I have started attending your bible studies (started with the lecture series on Revelations) the Lord has lit a fire for his word inside my being. I can’t get enough and I am now contemplating seminary. It is amazing the way he works… Me? in Seminary? Anyway, I believe that because you made it through your trials (James 1:2-4) with Jesus in the center of your life you DID earn your ministry. So quit talking like that precious heart! WE love you so much and thanks for who you are – 100% of you.
Love, KgM
Sweet Sweet Beth, Thank you for your post. I’ve been an observer in Siestaville for a while now, but never posted. I couldn’t let today pass me by. You are a treasure and this blog page is so encouraging, thank you. I too had a Nanny that spoke like yours (“tain’t” was another word she used which was a compound for “that ain’t”!) I lost her two years ago and miss her dearly. I am doing my annual summer Beth Moore ladies study at my church and this year is “A Heart like His”. We LOVE your hair. Many of us come to study in our “Beth hair” for fun and even though the clothes and hair are a bit “outdated”, the words still ring so very true and relevant.
Happy 4th and God Bless America and my Siestas.
Great Job Keeping it Real!!! Saying the hard stuff – Keeping God the focus – You go girl!!!!
Sweet Beth,
My bible study group did several recent studies in a row, like Esther and Daniel, and then did “To Live is Christ”. There were several obvious differences (yes, the hair) but what struck me the most was seeing how much you had grown in your walk with Christ. I remember thinking, “Father, look at how she has grown in You….there is hope for me!” I also remember thinking…. “OK, her hair then, looks like mine does now???” LOL
Your Nanny and I speak the same language. A “forener” in the mountains of ETN is anybody that did not grow up within a 70 mile radius of you. We called my grandmother “Lulu” (think Hee Haw) her favorite sayin’ for something that was really gross was “well, that’d gag a buzzard off a guts wagon”. Not kidding.
love you too
Beth – thank you for all your comments. God is so good and faithful and I so appreciate that you constantly are directing us to Him who loves us so much.
Thank you also, for your honest conversation. I always feel like I am sitting right there with you, sipping coffee and having a girlfriend chat. I have been thinking of my grandmother a lot too, so your comments truly struck a chord. I wish our grandmothers could have met! That would have been a hoot!
I hope your weekend is full of His peace and memorable family times. Bless you!
Thank you for sharing,Beth. Do not beat yourself up. When we are in the midst of pain, it is sometimes impossible to share what God is doing until we come out the other side and can look back and “see” more clearly.
I am looking forward to reading the updated version.
Dear Beth, I want to thank you for posting this. As an Admin to website which a ministry to women online, I needed to hear this right now. And maybe again later… Online ministry often hits women lost in the cracks of their churches and communities. Often we are tempted to “be Christ”. But if we fall for that temptation we may be blocking people for seeking Jesus to be their All in All. Shudder…
Beth-
Did you say once, that the sign of a good, godly leader is that if they step out of the way, you are still following Christ!
I thank you for bending to leadership, and for doing the hard work of sharing your heart. And for being sensitive to the Spirit to keep your ministry moving in the right direction.
You have showed me that you can love someone that you “don’t know” and I have sorely needed the love-even though in the beginning I admit to rolling my eyes. “You love me?-yeah, right.”
My mother/father are very distant-which hurts-they aren’t very interested in my life. So there is a big gaping hole of need there. And I thank you for showing me all these years, as you’ve learned yourself along the way(and thank you for not waiting until you had it “all figured out” to begin!)that God is the only one that can fill that need. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction continually. May God keep pouring his love into your heart. Happy Freedom to you all!
I think I relate to that deep hole you mentioned, and yes, God is the only one that can fill that need. It is a struggle, but God is my main focus when I get those feelings back I look into His Word for encouragement. Could use prayer in that area, I guess.
Thank you for being honest and I will keep you in prayer.
Thank you! Love your picture of you and your Husband.
Beth,
Thank You for a perfect word. I hopped on my laptop this morning, secretly hoping for confirmation about a particular situation. It’s confirmed. Thank You.
I’ve felt the Lord’s leading recently to share a sensitive & vulnerable testimony & message at an upcoming Women’s Ministry Event. While I am terrified of publicly speaking with wrong motives, I don’t want to ever knowingly miss an opportunity to give God glory & come alongside other women in pursuit of healing & wholeness. Though I have not arrived at my final destination yet, how dare I pretend 1.) that I haven’t been rescued from a deep pit, and 2.) that I don’t still have issues I need Him for! Praise God for both.
Your ministry, Beth, and your Bible studies have blessed my life very much! I praise God for working through you! Amen on wanting to be someone you can “learn” something! Blessings to you!
Beth,
This entire post spoke to me in so many ways. However, the last big paragraph in all caps was the clincher. I have one single tear running down my entire face as I sit here in complete agreement with that statement, knowing it applies to me as well.
For the longest time I did not understand the concept of “grace”. I did not understand it until I experienced it fully myself in a magnificent show of God’s awesome power and love. All I am and all I have is due to God’s grace. I am astounded by how he has transformed my life and, consequently, the lives of my children. I am blessed. I wake up each morning with a prayer of thanks springing to my heart. Undeserving? Certainly. This is why I am so committed to using my gifts fully to glorify the God who saved my sorry b–t and gave me a new life.(excuse the language)
I just love you Beth. So awesome… You’re one of my best friends, and I miss you! Can’t wait to get my arms around you in heaven and just SQUEEZE you!
Thank you Beth for your strong example of God’s grace. I have something nailed to the cross that I get on my face as well. God is taking my husband and I back into ministry. I try to remind Him of my past, that I am unworthy to be an example of His grace and unconditional love. Nevertheless He has called and I will respond. Have to love Him so much. Thanks for being real and true.
I hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July.
Thank you Beth. Sometimes we need to be reminded of his love for us. This fall I am doing the revised Breaking Free and I can tell you it will be the fight of my life to get through. I have prepared myself and I am looking forward to it. I also am planning to seek counsel if needed but I will be BREAKING FREE. I love you and thank you for all you do for Women and the faith. May God continue to bless you and YES!!!!! You deserve to be in ministry. Where would we be without you guiding us to HIM!!!
Oh sweet Beth,
Thank you! I’m doing To Live is Christ right now… and (wink) I could sense you were holding back you sweet thing, with your snorkeling story in a shipwreck session during a shipwreck season of your life… but sweet friend! You have NO idea the impact your ministry has made. I’ve been believing some crazy things for 3 years now. Like our God really is the WHO. And that He’s going to do immeasurably MORE. Thank you. You’ve been a best friend for more mornings that I can count… and then it’s as if I say goodbye to you, on those mornings, and speak to our sweet Lord, my delight.
Thank you, Precious disciple.
Thanks for the post…it was so affirming. Sometimes I get to blog on here with y’all, and sometimes it’s “just not happenin'”…it’s just life. So, thanks for the reminder of boundaries, and not just for seistaville…it’s really good for all of our relationships (especially the face-to-face ones!)
Love ya, and happy 4th!
Good thing I had a lot of time on my hands this morning. 😉
I’m reading through my little ESV Bible this year (really slowly), and I’m smack in the middle of the Samuels. SO much I’d forgotten about David! And I’ve never done your David study, so I’ll just wait for the new, improved, real and honest one. Perfect.
Hi There Sweet Seista Mama
Thank you for being the Real Deal loved the post, Loved the part where you said that is why you are the Mama here and the boundaries that you put here. Also about your grandma what an awesome story, the part where you said where you said save me from myself. Thank you for your ministry and for your blog Love you here in seistaville and your love for the Lord is so transparent thank you for being His Servant and being faithful.
Thanks Amanda and Melissa for sharing and taking time out of your busy schedules for loving us seista’s
HAVE A SAFE 4TH OF JULY
AND REST
Love you all Carol
Dear Siesta Mama, Thank you for sharing your heart with us. I just want you to know that this particular study brought me back to studying the Word years ago. It was my first Beth Moore study. I will never forget how God used that study to introduce me to women that I now ‘do ministry with.’ It was during that study that my facilitator asked me to begin facilitating. Praise and glory to God! He has taught me much over the years, as He has worked in my heart and life. “A Heart Like His” was a fresh new beginning for me and God. Glory!!! God used you Mama ‘where you were at the time’ to touch me ‘where I was’ at the time. I’m a bit shy of commenting, but felt this needed to be shared. Bless you as you rewrite the new study, and we praise Him for what He did with the older version!!! Love you guys!
Hi Beth, I don’t comment often but I just had to get on here this morning. I know you are not looking for compliments- but A Heart Like His was the very first study I ever did and I had never seen someone so in love with God. I have learned so much from you and He is so proud of you!
Have a blessed weekend!
Charity
I love this community. I rarely post but LOVE to watch the other Sietas interact with one another. All the posts to Erica had me moved to tears. What a wonderful, encouraging group of women. I love it! This blog blesses me so much I have to ask for forgiveness for not praying God’s protection over it. I will be better at lifting this place up in prayer!
Beth,
I am so sad over what you’ve been going through this last week. A Heart Like His was my first bible study (almost 4 years ago!) at it Changed. My. Life. I had always heard ‘it’s not a religion, it is a relationship’ but NEVER knew what that meant until doing that study on David. I look forward to the new updated version but will never forget how the original led me to a relationship with Him.
I love you Beth Moore. Have a blessed holiday weekend!
Beth,
I haven’t posted in a while. Life has seemed a bit overwhelming lately (bankruptcy and now a sudden loss of my job). I’ve been running in place trying to get by on yesterday’s mercies. Who am I kidding? We’re talking about mercies gathered 6 months ago right after our Scripture Memory Celebration. And then a door somewhere seemed to just slam shut on my desire, time, priority or something to be with the One I say I love so much.
All that is to say, I’ve missed this place. More, I’ve missed the tender, gentle instruction of God Most High. Thanks for being real with how He leads you through traumatic times (I would not include my financial stress as trauma, BTW). Thanks for ALWAYS pointing us to the truth, life and way.
Much love to you and your family. I’m gonna put the laptop now and open up the Word =)
Oh my sweet Beth-
Thank you for ALWAYS being so honest and real to all of us on here….I appreciate you for who you were and who you are now. God uses you to touch so many many lives and all for His glory!
We are in need of some prayer around here. One of our “couple” friends have separated, and the wife is devastated. They just had their second child at the beginning of April, and my heart has so ached for her for the past month without her husband. My husband and I open before God to use us in this, to be loving and supportive, but also speak the TRUTH of GOD into the situation. Please just pray for healing in their marriage and for God to shine through in my husband and I as well.
Happy 4th sweet girls- I hope you have a great time celebrating with family and friends.
Loving all of you,
Andrea
Thank you, Beth. Your authenticity is challenging and encouraging all at the same time.
I love you more’n my luggage.
Beth,
Your closing comments echo my sentiments exactly. When I am not caught up in my own head and self centered thoughts, I, too fall on my face before the Lord and cry out how unworthy I am to be a wife, mother, sister, friend. The Lord is the only reason I have not self destructed and he’s not finished with me yet. Not always is my strong willed spirit yielded to his leading, but I am so thankful that he hasn’t given up on me. I won’t give up until I meet my savior face to face. I loved your post…love all of them. They are rich with life and celebrate the uniqueness that God has placed in all of us siestas. Praise him for giving us one another to share in our walk. Happy (rainy) Independence Day to you and your family!
Beth,
I just love how honest and humble you are, how you pour out your heart to us, it makes me love you all the more. You are an amazing gift to me, and I will always be grateful to God for using you so effectively in my life. You are in my prayers often.
God Bless your socks off today!
Brenda
Beth–thank you so much for your heart for Jesus. I am so grateful for all you share because I too have lived a life in the pits. I marvel daily at how the Lord is using me in ministry because I truly do not deserve to be there. It is only by His grace and mercy that I am where I am today and who I am today! I want to scream from the mountaintop–“I AM NOT that woman anymore!” He has used my pain and regrets to transform me into a woman saved by grace who can use her spiritual gift of teaching to minister to the ladies of my church.
We have studied almost all of your Bible studies and love everyone of them! (I’m getting ready to repeat Daniel & Esther for the 4th time! Oh happy day!! :)) We just recently finished “Here Now, There Then”. Whew! Take a breath–what a roller coaster ride! Thanks!
Anyway, Beth, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your teaching and your heart for God. I will be in Lexington in August. Looking forward to yet another Living Proof conference. When ya coming back to Columbus, Ohio?
Thanks for sharing Beth. I loved reading the stories about your grandma. My grandma passed away this past May from Alzheimers. I got to share briefly at her memorial some of my favorite memories and one was a constant saying of hers done in a typical North Carolinian drawl…”Lord have Mercy”…when things were NOT going well and “Purrraize thu Lord”…when things were wonderful or good news had just been received. I also remember how she decorated her house like a Macy’s Department Store each Christmas. I loved going to her house for Christmas to see all the decorations and imagine I was a little character in her snow village wrapped up in her cotton ball/snow…and then of course there were her green beans and my grandpa’s mashed potatos and gravy. YUM!!!
I’ll have to dive in to your updated “heart like His” study…thanks for sharing how you held back but didn’t even realize it…I love it when people in leadership acknowledge their humanness…it makes them so much more pleasant to read, study and listen to…
Happy 4th of July to everyone!!!
I want to thank you for taking the time to do something so necessary… breaking away from the wonderful stories of Lord and life that we love to hear from you to issue some encouragement and caution to your Siestas.
God has placed me in ministry to convicted felons. The challenges and opportunites of ministering to such a group can be all at once exciting and draining. And the tendency to try to be God for them is one of the ways the enemy uses to drain those who would do His work, effectively sidelining them through emotional exhaustion.
Your cautions are well placed and I appreciate your openness and your protective spirit towards those you love.
Vallee
WOW, Vallee, what a calling God has placed on your life!! Thank you for being part of this community. You bring a wealth to it!
I pray with that verse in mind often…to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. It is the foundation of who we are. I was talking to the Lord about this yesterday. His patience is astounding! It’s humbling to receive His abundance. thanks for sharing. B
I appreciate your comment about Facebook, I have also resisted it to the dismay of others, but never felt it was the right thing for me at this time, and I am also not sanguine, but that aside, I think it is important that even in those choices, we let God lead, and He has not said yes to me joining in, and I am okay with that.
I look forward to your updated Heart Like His, and I loved the original! I want a heart like His, too!
This is why I check my LPM blog everyday… you teach me, you make me laugh, you make me cry…you help me love JESUS like a real, flesh and blood woman….
and the picture of Minnie listening on the party line just CRACKED me up!
love ya Siesta Mama!
Jan
Dear Beth,
Thank you for your raw honesty. My heart breaks. I too am guilty of presenting myself in a positive light, as if everything is ok when I am dying inside. God alone has brought me to a better place, but I realize I often hold back on giving Him the glory by pretending nothing bad ever happened. Forgive me, Father, and thank you, Beth, for bringing me to this realization.
I would love to have the prayer that we prayed with a Sister at the Living Proof Live in St Louis Missouri if anyone has it. God Bless and Imago Dei !!!
Beth,
You talked about your love of books. A year or so ago you got all of us Siestas to share what you have been reading and enjoying. I loved that and made myself a long list, but I am getting to the end of that list. How about another call out so we can all share in the latest and greatest reading finds to keep us going again for a while? My two most recent favorites have been Francine Rivers most recent, Her Mother’s Hope (I think that’s the title, already loaned my copy out) and the other was The Help. Both great reads. Beth, Amanda, Melissa…what have you read lately that you loved?
First, I love you Beth…
Second, even if you didn’t say it somehow everything you said today was portrayed throughout your studies, even the early ones.
Your relationship with our Savior is living and breathing… You are have been marked deeply by Him, and it shows in everything you do… Thank you for being one of the first people to show me that having a relationship with Jesus really should change your whole life 🙂 I love you dear sister…
Kim (To Know Him)
I am a breast cancer survivor with mastectomy and your daily devotional got me through some very rough times as God used you and your messages to make me see that I am never alone, never forsaken. I knew this of course but at times like these it is easy to forget that most important point. God Bless you Beth, Travis and all the LPL gang. Love you
Much love to you, Angela. I pray that Christ reveals Himself to you in wonder after wonder.
You know siesta mama, one of the things I respect the most about you is your honesty and your willingness to let God work in your life. Your willingness to share your experiences (and update them for that matter) helps me grow into the woman I am meant to be. It serves as evidence for me in my life that the journey just gets better and goes deeper the more we fall hard after Him.
Coincidentally, I just finished reading the book version of a Heart Like His and understand your point of view about it being different then what you would write today. But you know? God still uses it, just like He used this post to encourage me today. I know you know that but sometimes it helps to hear it.
I think sometimes God allows us to go as deep as we can handle when sharing what He is doing in our life. I am guilty of these same things from time to time, but like you sometimes it takes a minute for God to make me aware of it :O). It is terrifying for me when God just lays it out there or shows me myself from a different point of view – but kind of also refreshing right? What I noticed after reading A Heart Like His was that it kind of prepares the heart for something like Breaking Free and from an outside point of view I can see how God used these studies to get you and very rightly the rest of us to a place we can call Breaking Free. Mano. God is all over that study now isn’t HE?? :O)
All in all siesta mama, know you are loved. And know that your willingness to keep growing and going deeper is a welcomed breath of fresh air. Thank you for sharing your heart with us, it is well-received :O)
Thank you Beth for the boundaries here. Remembering our loved ones, mine is my grandparents, I like to write those memories down. The song Walking Her Home by Mark Shults(spelling) reminds me of them every time I hear it. I hope my daughters grandparents mean just as much to her as my grandparents mean to me. Lastly I think Jesus sometimes tosses things back my way to heal me, use for testomony, and to ponder all over again. Don’t always understand it but it helps to see Ms. Mama Seista go thru it too.
What a wonderful Savior we have! He makes everything beautiful in it’s time. He is our ONLY hope. He is our ONLY strength. He is our ONLY life. How awesome is His love for us! I praise Him for the cloud of wittnesses He has given us here on earth and in heaven above! I praise Him for you, sweet Beth, and so many other wonderful “angels of mercy” He has placed in my life that have pointed me straight to Him. Love you. Thank you Father!
Beth,
Thank you for the honesty. Thank you for it here AND in your studies. You lead us by example.
Thank you, Jesus, for your patience. Thank you for the pruning times that teach us to abide in you more and more. Thank you for the broken roads we travel that bring us back to you over and over. You alone are worthy of our lives’ deepest affections and energies. Bless Beth and all of us as we seek to know and love you more! Amen!
Grandmas and David. What a post. thats why I keep coming back to this post. The edifying ponderings and thoughts.
Grandma Minnie is what makes you, you Beth. It got me thinking about my own grandparents and great grandparents. God put us in the families we are in for a reason. And sometimes he alone knows those reasons. My grandparents were all immigrants from Europe. Holland and Sweden. My great grandfather was a minister that came to “Amerika”, became a naturalized citizen and then would occasionally go back to Sweden on mission trips. He was so proud to be an American that he would host a picnic on the 4th of July for his friends over there and have little fireworks. On the way back to America with his wife and 3 little ones, the children contracted diptheria and all three died within 3 weeks of each other. My great grandmother was pregnant with my grandmother at the time.
It has forever left an impression on me on what a privelege it is to be a citizen of this country. they came so far and left all family and friends… and had to go through so much loss. But they loved the Lord and they obeyed him. And because of that I have a heritage not only of immigrants but of obedient followers of the Lord Jesus…
As for “A Heart Like HIs”… I was coming out of a terrible time in my life where Satan had beaten me to a frazzle. When I went through that study I had never done one of those “beth moore studies”. Hadn’t ever heard of the woman. I remember my first session – totally startled by the hair! And then I was mesmerized by this little firecracker handling Gods word like she knew what she was talking about… and from the very first page God began to heal me. Sometimes I would just put my head on the book and sob my heart out…Whatever it was that I needed…God had put into that book to help me.
He wrote that book Beth. Through your hand. But he wrote it. ANd he’s still doing it.
Thanks for the post girl. I needed this.
heidi
I was so hungry for any study of the Word that would satisfy my soul and sat before a counselor telling her with tears my frustration. She said “God hears your yearning and He will answer”. I have tears even now remembering that season of my life. Now sweet Beth and Siesta’s through you God has richly supplied and my cup runneth over. In my Ruth book I have a piece of paper listing all the studies Siesta’s are doing or have done so when I need a new one a day won’t pass before I am in another. God is so good. So I read as many blogs as I can to find new studies. Of course while there, I am touched by some of the others crying out. Thank you Beth for your gentle reminder and your Nanny’s quote “Some folks ya jest caint learn em nothin” because that seems to be my most difficult challenge I so want my Lord and Savior to be there’s right this minute and take away thier pain. So I am saving today’s blog in my “Bible” file when I get down for not shining bright enough. Beth, when you are as hungry as I am any insight into the Word is a lightbulb moment. Even if the speaker has weird hair, I personally am thankful for the progression of the lessons based upon your life if it wasn’t said simply for us newbies I might not get it. I hope you get what I mean…I also understand the party line. As a little girl I lived in Bucksnort Tennessee and when the phone rang we had to count the rings and only if it rang twice was it for us. Thank you Beth for loving all of us with the love of the Lord.
Hi Yanna, I just wanted to comment on the party line. When I was a child there were 14 families on our party line and our ring was 1 long ring and 4 short ones!!! I remember once my dad drove 12 miles to town and got the part for his equipment that he needed and when he got home the same people were still on the line. What a different world we live in now!!!!
Beth,we love you and we love your random post as well as your more serious post like this one.
I’m not a blogger and am “barely” on Facebook. Too private and would probably get myself in trouble. Like this week, it’s been a not so great week, frustrating and I really want to call names – but I can’t and won’t!
It’s been a rough year and it’s really just blimps, but many of them, on the radar screen and I’ll be just fine. So I respect that you dont’ use this for “personal” reasons.
I never had grandparents to speak of I so wish I had. My parents both passed the summer of 07 and we never had a good relationship so I missed out on much.
Seen your rain, gorgeous here, come on up! Music on the Square last night, fireworks either tonight, tomorrow or even both.
Now it’s time to get off here, go clean the pool and continue to work on the overwhelming project of stripping a sunporch inside and out to bare wood…..then maybe I’ll take this overworked body in and work on planning vacation.
Have a safe happy DRY 4th.
Thank you Beth for this post. It hit me between the eyes and it needed to be done. I haven’t posted much on this blog, but I am a follower. What you described, I have done to others. I have spent the past 5 years angry, bitter and jumping from church to church because I feel like they have all “failed” me. I didn’t realize I was demanding too much from all of them. I demanded from everyone perfection, when Jesus is the only one capable of ministering to my needs perfectly. A loving conviction came over me immediately after reading your post… I am so sorry, but joyful He would point this out to me. I had no idea that this is what I was doing. Thank you Beth. You, your family and the other siesta’s are a blessing to me. Thanks to this community for being the REAL DEAL.
Just had my coffee, my husband is watching the World Cup, I’m reading your post and our dog is barking at something (he’s a bird dog, too). I missed the last post, so had to catch up….Beth, as always, you have hit the ball out of the park on this one. thank you for sharing your heart, your concerns about the blog, and then more of your soul. Thank you for ALWAYS being transparent, loving, and holding up truth for what God is doing in your life in order to encourage us to seek Him, honor Him and love Him. You are a fresh, real-life, honest-to-the-core, woman whose desire to honor the Lord and serve the women on the blog and around the world is utterly amazing. I am so blessed by your heart and soul that you risk sharing, and don’t back down. I feel touched by your words each time I read them. You do not have to do this, you could pretend, and we would still love you…so Thank you, Beth, thank you. Have a blessed week end with your family. Love, Pam in San Diego…
see you next week in Irvine!! (give us a shout out, we are in the overflow Community Center at Mariner’s Church)
Thank you.
1 more week of ministry project. I want to finish strong.
I am tired and weary but I am encouraged.
You can make it, Darla! God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness!
As I read this post, I absolutely felt God’s hands all over it. I felt burdens being lifted, and heart’s being soothed. I love you, Lord!! I love you so much. And thank you, Beth, for just being who you are. I love that, too. 🙂
I don’t know about you guys, but there are times that Jesus can just slay me with His sweetness alone. That He would meet us here, in the most unlikely place, is precious to me.
I think it’s pretty clear from reading my posts that I’m Southern to the bone. My Grandma Jolley had some of the sweetest sayings that only her family could decipher, but it’s my PawPaw Henderson that had the one I remember best! He never cursed. NEVER! But, he’d make up words to replace them. Maybe it was his way of venting, but still making sure he stayed within the bounds of what was right? Anyway, his favorite was Gozburell. LOL
Yep, Gozburell. Just say it phonetically, you’ll be saying it “right”. If he stubbed his toe, he’d loudly say, “GOZBURELL!” If he was in a fender bender, he’d say it. If he was mad, you guessed it! I actually thought that gozburell was a real word for years.
If you even tried to say what PawPaw considered a “real” curse word (like calling big brothers “stupid” and meaning it at the time!), he’d wash your mouth right out with soap. And it was that old timey soap, so it was a little extra gross. But, senility really attacked my pawpaw in his late 80’s, and he lived to be 96. Even then, I never heard a single curse word out of him. Although, we did still hear gozburell every once and a while. I’m grateful for that. Thank you for encouraging PawPaw to cross my mind today, Beth. He sure was a card, and a sweetie. 🙂
Have a wonderful holiday weekend everyone. Happy 4th of July, Siestas!
Beth,
I love your nanny stories. Funny how that generation, even far apart in this great nation, had some of the same sayings! Growing up in the Midwest, where we laugh about the time being turned back 50 years, and then being older parents, my girls still say some old-time sayings that I grew up with. Always brings amusement to their friends!
But I really loved your post about bearing your testimony – Oh Beth, that is what endears us most to you. Your realness and openness with us. I personally am so thankful for your frailties! Sounds horrible but because you are like us and lead us to greater healing and greater dependence on God, we too have healing and growth. (not that God couldn’t do it by Himself – but you know what I mean!) Authenticity is not overrated! We love you and thank God for you!
mk