Hey Girls,

My wife found a neat quote on Allie Lelievre’s Facebook wall this week:

“Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says “oh crap, she’s up!“”

How can you be this kind of a woman this week?  Any ideas?

Jay

I sat down to dinner with my 77 year old Grandmother the other night, who watches t.v religiously. The popular reality t.v. show “The Bachelor” somehow became the focus of our conversation. She filled me in on the latest drama. It was down  to the finale . Two girls remained out of the original 25. Tonight was the night the bachelor would pick the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Meanwhile, the rejected girl returns to her normal life -like the other 23 contestants- devastated and heart broken. DRAMA!!!!!! I left the table feeling distraught thinking … why would a girl do that to herself?

Girls have gone  to great lengths to find love. In this day and age we are encouraged to put ourselves out there. Oftentimes we do. Hoping all along that we’ll be noticed and chosen to be the recipient of a man’s attention and affection. We search for love with reckless abandon, giving our heart to undeserving candidates. Then we are left to deal with the consequences.

We are so quick to give away the very thing that gives us life . . . our heart. It is the core to everything we are - physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Physically- it keeps us living. Spiritually- it is the place the Holy Spirit dwells. Emotionally- it is where passions are birthed, joy or anger is felt, and desires are cultivated. Girls, our hearts are the most valuable thing we have. Proverbs 4:23 verifies this when it says ” Above anything else guard your heart, for it is the source of life.‘ It is time we stop using our hearts as tools to bargain with, and toys to be played with.  It is most valuable thing you will ever possess.  GUARD IT. Keep careful watch as to who/ what has access to it, and influence over it!

Jessica

Week Two from Kevin Makins…

“Build us up.”

2) Understand that men may look hairy, rough, and cool… but they are always wanting your acceptance.

Ladies, and especially married ladies, please hear this! Guys need to feel respected! Even though we are stupid, hairy, smelly, dumb-animals, we need to feel like you think we are the best!

Here’s a common example: how many times have you been out with a couple and the guy says something stupid (as we are prone to do)?  Maybe he talks too much or too loud (I have no experience with this, but try to imagine). Now how many times have you seen his wife/girlfriend lean over and tell him to be quiet, or to stop doing that, and the dudes shoulders just slouch down?  He said something stupid and she corrects him in front of all of their friends, and he just looks like his pride has died.

Girls, please don’t do this to your man.

Wait, let me rephrase.

Girls, please don’t do this to your man in public!

We need you to correct us; to tell us when we are being too loud, annoying, silly, inaccurate, etc. We’re dumb… we don’t know we are doing it or are too stupid to stop!

But we need you to do it in private!

We need to feel respect and approval; we need to know that you are our biggest fan, that you think we are the best! If we know this, then we can take the criticism later in the night, in private! We are usually quite willing to hear the criticism, but we don’t want to feel like we are being attacked by the person we love the most.

I’m lucky enough to have a fantastic wife who has promised me not to correct me in public… I need her prudence and wisdom… but she will only share it with me in private, when I don’t need to worry about my self-esteem! Work hard to build up your man and, if he is a good man, he will honor you for it, and seek to respect and love you as well!

Kevin

I really struggle with praying sometimes.  Often I end up mumbling a little prayer before I write an exam or essay, or quickly mention the name of a sick friend or family member as I pray over my meal.  But when was the last time I intentionally sat down and really prayed for people in my life?

If this resonates with you, I’d like to share and idea that I had in highschool.

1)    Take a piece of paper and cut it into small pieces.

2)    Write a name of a person you know on each piece of paper. Keep writing down names until you can’t think of any more.  Write down ANYONE who comes into your mind, whether its your close friend, your kindergarten teacher, or the bus driver whose name you don’t even know.  This will take you a while…you will be surprised at how many people come to mind!
3)    Find a container and put all the slips of paper into it.  Establish a time when you can sit down and pray. Draw out the slips one-by-one and pray for the person on that slip of paper.

Girls, this rocked my prayer life! Every time I would look at the name on the slip I had picked, I would get so excited about praying for them.  I would pray that God would give me the discernment to pray for them in a way that they really needed that day, and all of a sudden I felt like I was more interested in their lives and willing to invest into them more.  I would trust that God would guide my hand to pick the slips that really needed prayer that day, and so often I would find out that in fact my prayer had been answered in a person’s life.

So if you are struggling with praying for others, I encourage you to give this a try.  Have fun!

Michelle

Ever failed?

I have…a lot!  Sometimes it’s something as simple as burning a batch of cookies or putting too much salt in the pasta.  Other times, I have failed an assignment at school or a not getting the exact job I wanted.  Still other times, my failures have resulted in lost relationships, compromised values, and seasons of life apart from God.  Often I have come to the end of my rope wondering what went wrong…how did I end up here again?  For a burnt batch of cookies…it’s a simple as knowing that the oven was turned on to high or they were left for too long.

But the bigger things are a little trickier to figure out.  Most often I have found that my failures start with the tiniest of tiny steps away from God’s will…and then ever so gradually continue down that path so slowly that I don’t even see it coming until I am so far away from the starting point that it is hard to even remember what happened.

Here’s the encouraging part though…every time I have failed and repented, my walk with the Lord has grown deeper.  Failure has often been God’s way of allowing me to come to the end of myself, realizing that I absolutely must remain humble and allow on him to be in absolute control.  A LOT easier said than done!!!  I once heard a message on Luke 22:31, which is the passage right before Jesus’ trial. I remember the speaker talking about how Jesus didn’t pray that Peter wouldn’t fall into temptation at all, but that when Satan tempted him, his faith would not fail. That when he did fall, his faith in God’s perfect love would not fail him - so that even when Peter reached the bottom of the pit of failure, he would confess, “God still loves me”.

The important thing really isn’t how far you’ve fallen but how much you have learned through it.  Do you remember even at the darkest moment that God still LOVES you?  What are some lessons you have learned in a deeper way through some of your failures?

Andrea