I started this post out by typing, “Good Monday morning, ladies!”, but then I realized it was Martin Luther King day, so instead I’ll say, “Happy Martin Luther King day, friends!”

I imagine many of you are at home enjoying some snuggles with your little ones who are out of school, or maybe you’re a teacher who is loving spending a Monday at home as opposed to at school, or maybe, just maybe, you’re like those of us at Living Proof and you made the typical drive to work this morning. Either way, I hope your morning has started out peacefully and wonderfully! A few weeks ago our fearless leader reminded us that working is not a curse! Working is a good thing. So if you’re fighting thoughts of envy today, remember it’s a blessing to be working. Work with some excellence today, despite the way you feel!

Anyway, I completely sidetracked. Typical.

We are in full Tuesday night Bible study mode around here! I promise we’ll try not to wear you out talking about it, but I think it’s safe to say it’s high priority around here, and we joyfully get to serve. But, it got me thinking about you! I know for a fact many of you also started your Spring Bible study here recently and I’d love to hear what you’re digging into this semester. Plus, posts like these always benefit the reader that is looking for a study to do but just needs an idea or two.

So, let’s make our comments easy peasy. I’ll start:

Name: Lindsee

City: Houston, TX

Bible Study: I am participating in the Tuesday night Bible study, Children of the Day, but I am also taking a group of high school girls through Believing God written by our Siesta Mama, Beth Moore. 

What are you most looking forward to? I am looking forward to watching these young girls learn the five statement pledge of faith and also being reminded of them myself. Praying we would all believe God for immeasurably more this year!

Your turn! No pressure to answer each of the questions, but it adds a little spice, doesn’t it? However, for sure add the Bible study and who it’s by so that if someone is interested in that particular study, they won’t have any problem finding it!

Oh, and I couldn’t log off without sharing a glorious picture with you all from Tuesday evening. I can take zero credit for this picture because someone actually texted it to me after Bible study that night, but I thought it was too fun not to share. Thank you for praying for our first evening! Praise God alone for a room full of ladies studying 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. You would not waste a prayer on our Beth as she concentrates on all things involving this study!

We love y’all so very much.

The other day I received a notification on facebook inviting me to join a group for my high school ten-year reunion.

Initially, I shuddered.

Before I go any further, I do realize that I am still young and have years ahead of me, God willing, but a ten-year high school reunion seemed light years away when I graduated. So, the fact that it is very much upon us is straight up weird to me. And yes, I just said straight up.

The little red notification box got my mind spinning in all sorts of directions.

One very interesting thing about my generation is that facebook was released the year we graduated. Although I didn’t actually get a facebook account until a couple years later, I’ve essentially had facebook since I graduated.

That means that not a lot is left to my imagination. Since I walked across that stage to accept my diploma, I know who has gotten married, had babies, started their own businesses, traveled the world, moved to a different state, gotten divorced, and even, sadly, passed away. When you graduate in a class of 700, a lot can happen in ten years. I don’t often wonder about my fellow classmates because I see their faces pop up on my news feed.

However, if I’m being really honest, the other direction my mind immediately went was negative.

I’m pretty sure if I dug around enough, somewhere I could find a paper written on what my ten years after graduation would look like. I know without a doubt it included a husband and kids on there, and here we are ten years later, and that’s a far cry from reality.

What is it about having a spouse and kids that make you feel validated in front of others and worthless if you don’t? Oh, the enemy sure is crafty.

Do I know better? I absolutely do. I know from the depths of my soul and heart that a spouse and kids are simply a gift from God, same as having a job, or a ministry. If I put my identity in those things alone, I’m bound to lose my identity at some point.

But the weirdest thing for me is that I was that girl in high school. I was the girl that didn’t date at all, and in my ugly flesh, I wanted things to be different ten years later. But they’re just not. And that’s what rose up in me as I clicked on that notification.

Did it wound my pride just a little? You bet it did.

Because the truth is, inside every grown woman, there’s still a 7th grade girl that wants to be the pursued, adored and chosen one. As girls, we want to feel special and loved. As grown ups, we still have crushes, we just don’t admit and giggle about them like we used to.

This past Tuesday night we launched Bible study! It was an amazing night with an exceptional word. Because of a few jobs I’ve been given for those specific evenings, I am unable to take notes. This note-taker about had a fit when I realized I wouldn’t be putting any pen to paper, but once I got over it, I was able to listen and receive. Although I tend to have an elephant brain, there is still so much I don’t remember. But one thing I know for certain is that not one of the 4,000 ladies could have walked out of there without the faithful truth that we are chosen and loved by God.

That isn’t just a mushy, make you feel good comment, it’s a fresh, biblical reality we all needed to hear.

I would know, because I’m that grown woman who desires to be pursued, chosen and adored. And the truth is, according to 1 Thessalonians 1:4, I already am.

If I could go back, I would have told myself ten years ago that although in ten years life may not look like I dreamed or expected, the way the Lord has engineered my circumstances up until now are better than I could have engineered them. I would have told myself to chill out, that having a husband and children, though a legitimate desire of my heart, doesn’t mean I’ve arrived. I would have told myself that God indeed writes a better story than I can or ever will.

Every time I’ve tried to go after something myself the past ten years, God has thwarted my plan. Every time I’ve tried to hold onto something that wasn’t of Him, He’s snatched it right out of my hands. Every time I’ve pretended to be in control, He’s proven to me that He is faithful, and I’d rather Him be in control, even if I’m perplexed by what He’s doing. Every time I’ve doubted His goodness, I’m reminded that even when circumstances aren’t necessarily good, He is working all things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

I don’t know if I’ll attend my ten-year reunion. To be honest, I’m still that insecure high school girl that is waiting to see who ends up going, and then I’ll make my decision. Husband-less. Child-less. I still have a God who’s been exceedingly faithful to me even when I’ve been completely faithless.

It’s been a good ten years.

I’m praying for immeasurably more to the glory of God for the next ten years.

Only the Lord knows what I’ll be writing then.

Hindsight is always 20/20, is it not?

*Update: Lindsee here! Just wanted to let you ladies know that I added the Bible study image to the bottom of the post. Just a little eye candy for you visual folks. Grin. Feel free to pass along!

It is the time of year that all our Living Proof staff and multiple volunteers get most fired up about: TUESDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY!  Girl, we are gearing up. We start tomorrow night and, if you’re in the Houston area, you are wholeheartedly invited. Let me also tell you something God has placed strongly on my heart. I’m really praying for many women to come who have never been to a Bible study. (It’s lecture only at this time so she doesn’t have to jump straight into hours of homework.)  If you’re a veteran, bring somebody brand new who is open but unfamiliar. I keep getting a sense from my preparation for these two brief books of the Bible that they might offer someone new a taste of Scripture that is both personal and prophetic and that speaks to both now and later. It has an intimate yet pretty exciting feel to it, if you know what I mean.

Here are the facts:

*It’s for women only. Please respect this. Since we speak to all manner of topic, it’s seriously not the place for children either.

*We’re studying 1 and 2 Thessalonians and calling it “Children of the Day.”

*We’re meeting for eight Tuesday nights, focusing on one chapter each Tuesday night.

*We start worship at 6:30 PM then move into our study time and the evening concludes right at 8:30. We go for it on Tuesday nights.

*It’s an interdenominational, nondenominational, any-woman-welcome-no-matter-what kind of gathering. Sadly, we cannot offer childcare. We wish so much we could provide it but we have no way of knowing how many to provide for!

*It’s at Houston’s First Baptist Church at 7401 Katy Freeway at 610 and I-10. We are so grateful for their love and support. They are tremendously dear to us and we always hope and pray that God will bless them for being so gracious to house us.

*Carpool, carpool, carpool, carpool, CARPOOL!!! The parking lots at HFBC do not support a full house well. Since it’s free, of course, and no registration is required, we simply have no idea how many to plan for. Just in case, get there early if possible. Supper can be purchased in the Fellowship Hall but it would be best to get there pretty early those first few weeks.  If you arrive closer to 6:15, you might be wisest to bring to-go food and just eat it there in the Fellowship Hall without stress or lines.

*For more information, by all means please check out www.lproof.org/houstonconnection

*LPM staff and volunteers will be all of the place that evening to direct you or to answer your questions.

We would love to serve you! If you’re not in our area, please pray for us as we gather. Pray for Christ to be so present and powerful that we cannot help but be altered by Him. We are passionate about the privilege in Christ to serve our own city and everything about our Tuesday nights encapsulates what we feel most called to do at LPM. We are jazzed. Pray for us to be servants in every way.

I love you guys so much! Houston girls, we’ll see you so soon!!!

Hi Friends! It feels like a century since I last talked to y’all. I realize it’s only been two weeks, but it’s been two weeks too long.

Christmas day I hopped on a plane at IAH headed to Colorado to trade the stormy weather in for some more wintry weather. It was heavenly. And well, needless to say, very cold. This wimpy Houston girl went from 70 degrees to ZERO degrees in one day and my body was in shock. However, when enduring zero degree weather among snow, it makes it much more enjoyable and endurable.

Although we spent the greater half of our day traveling, we had a lovely Christmas. Unrelated detail, for a couple of reasons I had to fly a different airline and flight from the rest of my family and landed about an hour ahead of them, so while I was waiting I grabbed a bottle of water and some peanut M&M’s (Christmas meal of champions, mind you) and after purchasing said snackage, I told the lady Merry Christmas and she lit up. It was early afternoon, but you would have thought I was the first person who told her Merry Christmas all day. Made me think of not only of everyone who had to work that day for whatever reason, but also how easy it is to make someone’s day by saying one simple, kind word. Let’s commit to looking for ways to be kind in 2013. Deal?

Once the rest of my people arrived in Denver and gathered all of the belongings, we made the trek to my grandparent’s house where we were greeted with warm hugs and smiles. It’s not every year that we get to enjoy a holiday with our extended family, so it’s always a gift when we do get that opportunity.

We were also greeted by this breathtaking scene.

And this one.

No dreaming of a White Christmas for yours truly, I was living in a White Christmas.

For the next six days we soaked up every minute with our family possible, watched movies, made taffy from scratch, baked everything imaginable, shopped, enjoyed a bit of sledding, ate a TON and just did what you do on vacation, rested. One might assume we hit the slopes to ski, because a family that skis together stays together, but truth be told, we are sadly not a skiing family.

Oh, but cousins that sled together stay together. Here’s some proof:

Sometimes you just have to photo-bomb your little brother. Laughing.

I was in my happy place.

I left the blankets of snow a day earlier than the rest of my family to head to the big Atlanta for Passion 2013. I was pumped and could not wait to be there!

If you were there, you might be able to help me sum up what the Lord can do in a week with a dome full of hungry college students, but I’m here to testify that what happens in the Dome is supernatural, anointed and favored by God.

Yesterday at lunch I was telling some co-workers that I was searching through the archives of this blog a couple of days ago trying to find something, and I read a post our Beth had written about Passion 2011. She mentioned that a gathering of 20,000 college students is undeniably a work of God, and it dawned on me that just two years later, 60,000 college students gathered to hear a Word from the Lord, worship Him, and fight to set some captives free from slavery. Y’all, the word huge just doesn’t do it justice. But that’s HUGE! I don’t know about you, but I WANT our college students to get it, to hear it, to DO THE THING. And lest you think that generation is lazy, you need to get yourself to Passion. It’s rejuvenating, refreshing, energizing and so much more. When you leave you feel like you’ve been near God. And the nearness of God IS our good!

Because words fail me when it comes to wrapping up what the Lord did at Passion and all He spoke over us, Louie Giglio’s gift of pulling it all together with a pretty bow never ceases to amaze me as he brings a strong Word for the last session every year.

It would be safe to say that a major theme at Passion this year was to believe God for “immeasurably more” (Ephesians 3:20) in 2013, so when Louie pulled out Isaiah 61 that last morning to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”, he challenged us by asking the question, “If it’s the year of the Lord’s favor, what would you like? What would you ask for?” At that point, my mind was spinning a thousand different directions. The dreams and desires in my heart are often times hard to articulate (and it would make this blog even longer than it already is, bless my heart), but I’m believing God to give me not only a vision, but also the words to articulate it and make it happen.

As my pastor (Curtis Jones) said on Sunday morning, fired up after also being at Passion, 2013 is the year for getting things done, why? Because He is able, you are able according to the Spirit and He gets the glory. Amen.

Just a little peak inside the Dome. (Please forgive the quality, as these were all snapped with my iPhone.)

I’ll never tire of getting to worship under Christy Nockels. What a gift she is.

Our Beth teaching.

The table.

Getting to meet with the 2,000 girls LPM sponsored. Definitely a highlight.

Each of the girls repeating a commissioning to one another.

A few brave girls got to share their story with us and why they wanted to come to Passion. Can you say courageous?

This is truly the one time at Passion we all get to serve together. Isn’t that so bizarre? I love them.

A sweet girl we had the privilege of sponsoring, Shaci, happened to be on the plane ride home with us.

You know we had to snap a few pictures. Bless her heart, she still had two more flights to go once we landed in Houston!

So, let me as you the question, if this is the year of the Lord’s favor, what are you going to ask for? What is going to bear fruit? In 100 years, our fruit will be what matters.

It’s going to be a GOOD year, girls.

I MISS YOU GUYS!!!! Much to catch up on! You guys want to get together for 30 minutes and livestream? And how would it be to actually know a day in advance this time?? SO, if you’re available, mark it down somewhere, jot it on a post-note or tell Siri on your iPhone to remind you to meet up…

Wednesday January 9th (tomorrow) at straight up 12:00 noon Central Standard Time. We’ll say hello, catch up a bit, grab hold of a Scripture, pray together and get you right back to your day in a flash.

To join in with us tomorrow, simply click on this link a minute or two before we air and you’ll be good to go. For you early birds, if you arrive too early, you’ll see that it is password protected. This is so that we can get it set up and ready to go without an audience. Grin. If you’ll be patient with us, we will remove the password about ten minutes prior to going live. So don’t let the password mess with you! It will come down right on time.

If you’ve having a problem accessing the livestream channel through the link provided, you can also find us by simply typing “Living Proof Ministries Livestream” into Google.

I love you guys! See you tomorrow? And pray for me to be able to serve you diligently and filled with the Holy Spirit. God can do a lot in half an hour. I do want to have fun but I don’t want to take it lightly.

It is Christmas Eve morning and, for just a few minutes, all is still in my house. Keith is sleeping unusually late, Geli is nestled up on her bed (because a single degree under 80 is far too frigid for that whiny-baby German Shorthaired Pointer) and Star is outside chasing squirrels from the bird feeder. I slept late myself and have just finished my quiet time and my second cup of coffee. Things are about to rev up around here and I know the same is true for your household, or if you’re out of town, your family and hosts. I’m looking so forward to it. I dearly love this time of year. I’ll do much cooking today in preparation for tomorrow. I’m also having a little cooking class with Melissa this afternoon to teach her how to make a homemade pie crust.

You and I are delightfully comprised of all sorts of women: too young to be married, married, single, single again, and many widows. For those of us who are married, our husbands are the God-ordained head of our homes but, according to my man at least, the wife is largely the heart of the home. We often set the thermostat, so to speak. (Unless we’ve got a mean alcoholic husband who keeps the temperature enraged constantly. If that’s you, I’m so sorry and I will pray for God to deliver all of you to His great glory and by His tender mercies. I hope you are seeking solid, godly counseling and loving wisely. I just had to throw that in. I am an optimist by nature but I have not had the kind of life that lends itself to much naivete.)

I think this ability to set the thermostat of our gatherings is true for all of us women in many ways, married or single. Just watch and see if the temperature in our homes or apartments, and in many of our celebrations and among our friends these next few days is not set in large part by

our female tenderness,

our joy,

our willingness to overlook an offense,

our mood in serving,

our ecstasy in giving…and our enthusiasm over receiving.

Holidays are a LOT on a woman. I haven’t been sick in three years but I came down with a bad cold two days ago. Last night my sweet man hugged me and said, “Woman, you’ve been working too hard, writing, scurrying all over the place, then working on all of this.” He motioned with his expression to a lively, perhaps overly-decorated den, many presents, and a kitchen full of groceries for cooking. He couldn’t have been kinder and more sincere nor could he have offered to help more. Had he been none of those things, I would have wanted to say with considerable attitude, What was the other option? It’s got to all get done.

Yes, it does. We could all argue that we could down scale the whole thing and it would be easier and that’s absolutely true but that’s not liable to happen around here anytime soon. This is a family that loves celebrations and four lively generations engage at the drop of a hat. We thrive on it! But it is a LOT of work, isn’t it, Sister Friend?? And, it just occurred to me as I am writing this that the major reason I don’t delegate more of it is because I want to control all of it.

Ouch.

That was painful.

Let’s have a real live MERRY Christmas this year and at least quit stressing over all manner of thing that doesn’t even matter. There’s enough that does! Let’s get to it! I’ll pray for you and you pray for me that this will be our best Christmas celebration EVER. Let’s fire our inner Martyr Martha and let’s fire up the indwelling Spirit of the living Christ. Let’s serve lavishly and joyfully with a fresh awareness of His reigning presence in our homes as we celebrate His glorious advent. And then, let’s have guts to say to everybody at some point, “I’m going to take a nap! I love you guys and I’ll see you in an hour!”

We tried to think of a gift we could give all of you that might whisper to you how much you are loved here at LPM, a gift that might be used of God to encourage you this holiday season. This is a collection of things I’ve written and recorded around the Christmas theme and story. It’s not liable to be everybody’s taste but, for those of you who would like it, we want you to have it as a free download. Maybe you could listen to it while you cook or while you nestle up with a blanket for a few minutes by the fireplace.

If you’d like to have this free download, click on this link and then enter the Promotion Code: christmas2012

Once you enter your promotion code, you will see instructions on how to download each of the three sessions, Mary’s Reflections, A Country Christmas and The Shepherd’s Story.

Oh, mercy, Sisters, we love you so much. I love you so much. Stay in the light these next few days! We are blessed women indeed.

Merry Christmas.

Happy Friday, Siestas! Did you hear the big sigh of relief coming from LPM this morning? We made it to the end of the week alive and well! I told one of my co-workers yesterday at lunch that I’ve never wanted a week to slow down more than this one. But, we’re so happy and grateful to serve each of you!

The ministry will shut down at noon today and then each of us will scamper off to our Christmas destinations, however, before Christmas gets completely past us, I wanted to bring your attention back to Passion 2013. Do you remember last year when we were able to scholarship and meet with 1000 young women at Passion? If you remember, a few months ago we announced that this year when we wanted to give out scholarships to 2000 young women to attend the conference.

Well, it was our desire that, after giving out each of the scholarships, we could rally together 2000 Siestas (you!) again to partner with each of these girls and pray for them. Listen, if the Passion team is believing God to fill the dome this year, why can’t we believe God to provide 2000 prayer partners?

So, I am thrilled to announce that we have our website up and running to make that happen!

Here is what you need to do: Click on this link.

When you get to that page, the instructions are very clear how you can receive the name of the girl you will be praying for.

Here’s why we need to bounce on this with both feet: Passion is January 1st – 4th so it’s coming up very quick! If you could take five minutes to do that, we would appreciate you more than you know and some wonderful young woman’s experience at Passion may be altogether intensified. You might put her name in your phone every day as a reminder to pray for her before, during and after Passion.

At the bottom of the page, right before you enter your email address, there is a “counter”. If you see “0” then that means there are no longer any girls available. Praise the Lord! However, don’t let that stop you from joining this army of prayer warriors January 1st – January 4th while we’re all at Passion.

We love you ladies so much and hope you know what a vital part you’re playing in each of these girls’ lives. Let’s make sure each of them are lavishly covered by name. We know the Lord will show up and can’t wait to see lives changed and transformed. I am sure when we get back we’ll have a tremendous report for you. We know you’ll want to hear all about it!

Thank you for partnering with us and praying. We love you all so much!

Good morning, ladies!

We are swirling over here at LPM getting ready to close down for a few days over Christmas, but, I didn’t want another day to pass before I had us discussing all things traditions.

We’ve covered Christmas parties, affordable Christmas gifts, so it only seems appropriate to share our traditions with each other.

Hear me loud and clear, if you and your family don’t have many traditions or maybe you just aren’t too fond of them, no guilt whatsoever. Saturday morning I went to a Christmas brunch with some ladies from my community group and they all went around and shared some of their favorite traditions. Hearing their traditions was neat and got me thinking for what I might want to do with my own family one day. We can all learn from each other!

I did end up sharing a few things that I would losely label as traditions in our home, but I guess if you do the same thing every year, whether big or small, it’s still a tradition.

For one, my parents have served on our worship team at my church since I was a little girl. That means that the minute the doors opened at church, we were there. With that said, I can tell you the number of times we’ve missed the Christmas Eve service at church on one hand. The only reason we missed a Christmas Eve service was if we landed in Colorado that particular year to visit our family.

Secondly, and this makes our family really weird, but we open gifts s-l-o-w and l-a-t-e. It was torture when we were youngins, but as we’ve gotten older, it would be weird for us to open our gifts before two o’ clock in the afternoon. One year we went the entire day, ate our Christmas meal, visited our dear friends, then came home and opened our gifts that night. That was a one time deal, but it’s how we roll. We also open up our gifts one by one.

And that, my friends, is the extent of our family Christmas traditions.

I’m sure my mom will read this entry then proceed to call and tell me all the things we do that I left out, but for the life of me, I can’t think of one tradition we have.

Let’s hear from you, ladies. I have no doubt these are going to be some fun comments to read!