Small Group Leaders 2011-2012

Something many girls in our Bright Lights group may not realize is that once a month, all the older girls who serve as small group leaders take time out of their Saturday afternoons to pray and plan for their small groups. These young women have faithfully invested time into serving and praying for the 6-8 girls in their groups.

Today was one of our meetings & we took time out to take a few pictures.

Miriam Group Leaders

Ruth Group Leader

Esther Group Leaders

Mary Group Leaders

Rebekah Group Leaders

I am so blessed by the way these girls love & serve with such willingness & joy! It is truly an honor for me to know & serve alongside them! Thank you girls for all that you do! :)

Complaining & Murmuring 2/28/12

Today we built on our lesson from last meeting & talked specifically about complaining. I encouraged the girls with two examples from Scripture. First, I talked about the Israelites who complained despite all the mighty deeds the Lord was performing for them. Second, I talked about Joseph and his attitude of rejoicing in the unforseen plan God had in store for him rather than complaining.

I encouraged the girls to view suffering & irritation as a test, an opportunity to rejoice in the Lord and trust that He will work through the situation.

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." James 1:2-3

"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." 1 Peter 5:10

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 Corinthians 4:17

After the lesson, the girls gathered in small groups & filled out a "mad lib" sheet.

Little did they know that the words they wrote down would be give to another group to be used in a melodramatic song about gratefulness & rejoicing. Here are a few pictures of each group writing & planning their song.

Once the songs were written & planned, the girls gathered back together to present their silly & amusing songs about why they were grateful for horseradish, the grocery store, golden bunnies and other random things. :) As always, the girls were quite creative & the songs turned out very funny.

After the skits the girls split up again for small group time of discussion, Bible memory & prayer.

We ended with delicious desserts & tea!

See you on March 13th for our next meeting!

Gratefulness 2/14/12

I apologize for being so delayed in getting our pictures from last week's meeting posted. Typically I'm fairly prompt & for some reason, it slipped by me this time.

This semester many girls from our group are paired with a pen pal from a Bright Lights group in Texas. At our meeting, each of the girls received their pen pal's info card. It was fun to see everyone excited & comparing cards with each other.

Last Tuesday we began Set 5 with the topic of gratefulness. Gratefulness is "being aware that God is working even through difficulty and expressing to others how God has used them to benefit my life."

At the end of the lesson, I had the girls write down a list of at least 5 reasons why they were grateful for their parents. Each young lady was challenged to share at least two of those things with her parents sometime before our next meeting.

I also had each of the girls think of a situation or person that they find difficult to have a grateful attitude around. I encouraged each of them to purpose to respond in gratefulness during the week for that situation or annoyance.

After the lesson, the girls had a time with their small groups. This year we have 5 different small groups that are led by young ladies who are being trained in leadership. Each of the small group leaders helps lead discussion, accountability & prayer for her small group.

The Miriam Group

The Esther Group

The Rebekah Group

We ended, as usual with tea & dessert. It was Valentine's day so we enjoyed some extra special Valentine's treats provided by several of the young ladies in our group.

Making hearts for Valentine's day!

I'll see everyone again on Tuesday, February 28th!

4:12 Discipleship

This semester about 12 young ladies in our group are meeting together a few times a month for one on one discipleship. Each younger girl is paired with an older partner and together they work through a discipleship lesson, set accountability goals and pray for each other throughout the week. It's exciting to have this opportunity set aside for intentional, meaningful fellowship. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing of the fruit that results in each young lady's life because of our time together.

This evening we took pictures of four of the six pairs. (We'll have to get pictures of the other 2 pairs next time around)

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

"For the perfecting of the saints, for the works of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Ephesians 4:12

"...Always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." Colossians 4:12

Contentment 1/24/12

To start the evening, girls were divided into smaller groups and prepared skits together based on Matthew 6:19-21. The skits demonstrated the way a discontent girl with an earthly perspective would respond to a situation vs. the way a content girl with an eternal perspective would respond.

As always, the girls were very creative & the skits were quite humorous. After skits, we sang "Who Will Shine God's Light?" from the Bright Lights CD. I am always so blessed by the girls sweet voices filling our basement!

This evening we had a special treat! One of our older girls, Jessica, taught a special lesson on contentment. She talked about pride, and how it is the main cause of discontentment in our lives. She challenged the girls to put God & serving others first. She did an excellent job, especially since it was her very first time to teach a lesson!

After a time in small groups for discussion & prayer, we ended with tea & dessert.

I look forward to seeing you all for our next meeting on February 14th as we begin Set 5 together! If you're doing 4:12, I'll see you before then on January 31st!

Set 4 Testimonies

Here are a few of the testimonies girls wrote last semester after we finished Set 4. I hope you'll enjoy reading these & rejoice in what God is doing in our group this year!

"Courage to Stand Alone was my favorite lesson. I learned about this a few years ago, but it's always good to be reminded again because we are humans and slip up. I know for myself, I tend to find myself wanting to "blend in" but instead I need to tell myself that God has called me to a higher purpose and I should be serving my Lord instead of myself." -age 14

"Although the lessons have influenced me in more ways than I can count, the way God has most used Bright Lights in my life is giving me boldness. There have been other factors that have helped me with this issue, but Bright Lights has definitely been one of the most important influences.

About two years ago, I was extremely shy... I avoided praying out loud, I was terrified of what people would think of me, and I didn't want to step out of my comfort zone for anything. Although I wanted to serve others and witness, I was afraid to take the first step to doing so. However, lessons like Presenting the Gospel, Sensitivity and Humility convicted me of my selfishness and pride, and God helped me to begin to change. Being a small group leader literally shoved me out of my comfort zone, but it surprised me how quickly my comfort zone was enlarged, so I started reaching out in other ways. Several important times this year, I've felt God prompting me to do something... when I obeyed, even though I was afraid, God would bless what I was trying to do and although it was usually just as hard as I thought it would be (if not more so), it wasn't impossible... and it was worth it.

I'm still shy. I'm still afraid of what people think of me. I'm still selfish and prideful. And I always will be. But God is changing me. Day by day, He's molding me into the person he wants me to be. It's hard; it's a painful process. But He knows what He's doing, and I wouldn't have it any other way." -age 15

"One decision I have made this semester, after we learned about protecting ourselves from polluting influences, is the commitment to submit to my father's rules while I live in his house. It has made a big difference in my life. I am following his rules better and respecting him more. I have also tried to follow my mom's rules more too. The other lesson that had the most impact on me is the one where we learned that standing alone is going to be hard but rewarding. It impacted me most because I do stand alone sometimes at school. But I know that even the times when I don't have friends I can still believe that God knows what He is doing. The Lord is showing me more on how to pick true friends and how to better obey my parents." -age 10

"This semester in Bright Lights there were a lot of important lessons. All the lessons were very helpful for me but I think the one that helped me the most was the lesson on having the courage to stand alone. I have never actually stood up alone for what I believe in, there have always been other people to stand up with me. But, as it says in the lesson on standing alone, before we can apply the other lessons we learned in this set we have to gain the courage to stand alone. This has opened my eyes to all the chance I have had to stand alone, and I haven't. I have been praying four courage to stand alone with God. And for a chance to stand alone for him. Once we have the courage to stand alone in God, we have the ability to stand up to our friends for what we believe in, to use discernment with our words and to stay away from polluting influences." -age 13

"One Bright Lights meeting, we were talking about friends. Allison mentioned that we should evaluate our friends by how they treat others (especially their siblings). I realized that if people evaluated me that way, they probably would not want to be my friend! That thought has helped me set a goal for myself and it's given me more of a desire to be kind to my brother and sisters." -age 11

"I was always concerned about how I looked. I didn't like my hair style. I thought my clothes looked weird compared to the girls' clothes at school. I also wanted to wear make-up. I also was worried about how I talked. I didn't want to talk about Jesus to other kids at school. I wanted to talk about what they wanted to talk about. I also wanted to act cool. I didn't want to be the odd one out. I wanted to have a friend at school. So, I started to act like the other girls at school. I always wore tight jeans and started to wear lipstick, like the other girls. I also started to use the words they were using and began talking a little too much in class. I also had a different attitude about things.

After discussing the lessons this semester, I started to do things God's way. I started talking about Jesus to other girls at school. I paid more attention to who I was hanging out with. I need to hang out with someone God would approve of. I didn't talk as much in class. I changed myself to be more and more like God. I understood things better about what God looks for in a person.

Now, I realize I don't want to be like the other girls. I want to be like Jesus. I also want to be a Bright Light to others and be noticed as a follower of Christ. This semester has really helped me know who I want to be and what a fully devoted girl for Christ should look like. I want to be able to stand alone." -age 12

"Two chapters from our lessons really meant a lot to me, they are: "Friends" and "Polluting Influences." The "Friends" chapter has made me think more about what kind of friends i choose, and whether or not they are a Godly influence or a bad influence. The chapter on "Polluting Influences" has helped me pay closer attention to what I watch on TV, especially kids' shows that promote boy/girl relationships or anything with bad language. I'm making a commitment to honor God by saying "no" to things that tempt me to think bad thoughts or do bad things." -age 10

"I think Bright Lights impacted my life in the lesson where I had to accept the way God made me. I used to always think that I wasn't beautiful, then I found Psalms 139:14, 'And I praise your for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' That changed the way I thought about myself. Plus, Genesis says that we are made in God's image! And Bright Lights has really helped me grow on that because I am surrounded by lots of other Christian girls that are friends with me no matter what I look like." -age 11

Q&A Meeting

This meeting was a little unusual because there wasn't a set lesson topic. Instead, Allison answered various questions girls had submitted at our previous meeting and shared about some new happenings for the semester.

We began the evening with a game called "mingle" where girls got to walk around & then get in groups by certain criteria (same color shirt, same town, etc.). Once divided into groups, they were given a discussion question to answer amongst themselves. Then, that pattern was repeated.

After Allison's time of sharing, the girls signed up for pen pals & then went to their small groups for relationship building, discussion & prayer. We ended with tea & dessert.

I look forward to seeing you all again on January 24th!