Preparing to be a Wife & Mother

Tuesday was our first meeting back together after our break over the holidays. What a joy it was to see everyone again & get started for the semester! We began our new set of lessons with the topic of "Preparing to be a Wife & Mother."

I shared the vision for our God-given role as women and the exciting potential we have to impact many for the kingdom of God when we choose to embrace the jobs God has chosen for us. We also talked about the importance of beginning to prepare for these jobs now while we're young so that by the time God brings along our husband & family we will be able to serve well.

During the lesson, I had the girls throw out various skills that would be important as a wife & mother. Then, I had them share important character traits for a wife & mother to possess while I recorded them onto the dry erase board.

After making our lists, we used them to discuss how many areas we have to grow in as we prepare. We should have not problem keeping busy between now & then! ;)

At the end of the lesson, I encouraged the girls to be aware of the independent mindset that the world promotes for us as young women. I encouraged to truly seek the Lord about their future & pursue His heart for their seasons of preparation between now and the day they are married.

Once the lesson ended, the girls broke up into teams and worked together to create a skit. Each team chose one of the character qualities from the board to base their skit on. The skits had to demonstrate a situation in which a wife/mother would need to demonstrate that character quality & also show what would happen if she had not developed that quality in her life. ;)

We ended the meeting with small groups followed by tea time!

I look forward to seeing everyone again for our meeting on February 5th!

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!

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!

Standing Alone 12/6/11

We ended our set on holiness this evening with a lesson on standing alone. I explained to the girls that in order to apply everything we learned in this set, we have to be willing to stand alone, be rejected & viewed as foolish in order to stand with our commitment to Christ and His holiness.

I encouraged the girls to live their lives with courage, seeking to walk in the fear of the Lord rather than the fear of man. I also reminded them that in standing alone we are never really alone, for God has promised to always be with us & never forsake us.

During the lesson, we played a game where various girls acted out a character of the Bible who stood alone while I read a description of that character. After the charade & description was finished, the group tried to guess who it was.

The girls were challenged to learn from the example of these Bible characters as they sought to stand firm for Christ.

After small groups, we ended with tea & fellowship! After a semester of meetings, it's exciting to see the new relationships that are beginning to form as well as old friendships strengthening.

Since our group is so large this year, I have been doing a private tea party with three girls each meeting. This provides an opportunity for me to get to know girls a little better. Instead of a "date" we call this little get together a "fig."

The girls I had a "fig" with this meeting.

We hope to see many of you on December 20th for our Christmas party. Otherwise, we'll see everyone on January 10th for our next meeting!

Polluting Influences 11/8/11

This evening we had yet another blessed Bright Lights meeting! During the lesson I shared about various polluting influences which the enemy uses to trap us and encouraged the girls to search their lives for things that may not honor the Lord.

They were also encouraged to submit to the protection of their parents. We ended the lesson by each girl signing & decorating a special certificate to give to her father.

After the lesson, we did a sword drill with verses related to holiness & our topic for the evening. Girls who looked up verses the fastest, racked up points for their small group & the winning small group (which was the Mary group) got to enjoy M&Ms during their small group time.

After small groups we ended, as usual, with tea & dessert!

We'll see everyone a week from today for our special father/daughter meeting at CBC!

P.S. This shot was too funny not to post. ;)

Holiness 9/13/11

Today was our first official Bright Lights meeting of the semester! We had a great time together as we adjusted to the group's doubled size.

Eagerly awaiting everyone's arrival.

The pile of shoes by our front door.

This evening we started outside with a game of "speed friending." Each pair of girls had about 30 seconds to discuss their answers to a get to know you question before everyone had to switch to the next person in the circle.

It was a fun and quick way to learn a little something about half the girls in the group.

Our lesson for the evening was on holiness. I shared with the girls what holiness is and why we, as believers are called to be holy. I also challenged the girls to examine their lives & consider whether or not they make decisions based on what is common to society or based on what God says about it.

During the lesson, some of the girls acted out the story of King Asa found in 2 Chronicles 14-16.

King Zerah of Ethiopia attacks King Asa.

King Asa is a good king.

Being attacked by the Ethiopians

Seeking the Lord.

Being attacked by King Basha of Israel.

The story of King Asa was used as both a good example and a bad example. When the Ethiopians attacked, King Asa trusted the Lord rather than worldly wisdom. However, when he was attacked by King Basha, he turned to man's wisdom and died.

After the lesson, we broke up into our new small groups. Finally, we ended with tea & dessert.

Overall, tonight was a wonderful start to a busy year! After months of prayer & preparation, it was so exciting to see everything come together. I look forward to seeing everyone again on September 27th!