Gossip 3/13/12

One of the girls who was a part of our group recently moved & wrote us a letter. One young lady began our meeting by sharing this letter with everyone.

 This evening our topic was gossip.. something we take lightly but God takes very seriously. Gossip is destructive and rooted in pride. Our desire as Christians should only be to speak words of love that will build up and encourage those around us.

As talkative young ladies, it is easy for us to be caught up in this subtle sin, yet God has called us to a higher standard in the way we speak and place value on others.

"He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends." Proverbs 17:9


"Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." Ephesians 4:29

During the lesson, we played a comical game, telephone charades, which illustrated how a story can get distorted as it is passed from one person to another. Each round a team of 6 was chosen.  While her teammates were out of the room, the first girl was given a Bible story she had to act out. Then her second teammate entered the room and watched her perform the charade. The 2nd person then acted it out for the 3rd person and the game continued until the last person had to guess what the original Bible story was.

It was amusing to see how the charade changed from person to person until the final act had nothing to do with the original story! In the same way, when we repeat stories about people, they often adapt and become a tale far from the truth.

Once the lesson was over, the girls spent time in small groups, began working on a special (secret) project for our upcoming banquet & ended with tea time. See you all again on March 27th!

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