Summer Dinner Party: Church Girls' Chat
Hi Friends!!
Last night, May 29th, I had a couple of girls over!
I made a soup and some sugar free honey lemon cake (here's the link from Sheri Silver's blog, http://sherisilver.com/2013/02/21/sugar-free-honey-lemon-cake/ )! The soup had white beans, kale, turkey, Swiss chard from the farmer's market, carrots and a lot of love!
Most of you sweet readers already know, I LOVE feeding people! I love the action of gathering people together, and creating space for connection with one another and connection with God.
Last night was like that. Sure, there was food, there was laughter, and a couple dishes at the end of the night (which they helped me clean up, how nice!), but the greatest honor was to share our hearts. My friends Mariah and Maria Teresa came- both go to my home church and were in youth group with me when I was a middle-schooler. They are both a couple years older than I am, but we share a lot in common! They are wise, funny, smart, thoughtful, and most of all they are wrestling- just like I am- to figure out how to best live out their faith in a world that seems to push so hard against our Biblical values.
Here's what I aim to share with you today.
Have you ever felt alone in your faith? Maybe in the faith community, you feel like no one else has or is struggling with what you are walking through. You feel the pull of your flesh, telling you to lash out in this way or that way, and it's so easy to say yes to yield to that... yet the small tug in your soul from the Holy Spirit reminds you there is another WAY. It's just... HOW do you get there?
Friends, I used to think that I had to walk my faith alone. I didn't grow up with a whole lot of people my age and in my stage of life who were willing to walk with the Lord. So I deliberately sought out older women (usually moms or grandma's in the church) who could give me wisdom. But can I say something else? I truly have come to value the rough conversations with those my age who are also trying to figure out how to live our faith out. Things like, "I want a godly marriage and a family that I can serve God with, but how do I get there?" These are things that, while I can talk to married folk about, it isn't quite the same as someone who is single in my age range!
Can I say something else? Are there young women and men in your congregation? Encourage them. This world, especially in the Bay Area where I live, is constantly CONSTANTLY pulling at them to abandon their faith. Music, peers, TV shows, even literature and clothing stores!!! The Bible tells us that we are living in this world, but not of this world. Young adults are struggling to have support in staying the straight and narrow path.
We need people to come alongside us.
What amazed me from last night's dinner conversation was 1) how hungry each of us young women had been longing for fellowship and 2) how grateful we were for our church body. I am getting teary eyed just recollecting the content of our conversation, but all three of us gals had gone through something difficult within our families in the past three years. We each could point to members of our church body who lifted us up. Who smiled and told us it was good to see us at church today. Who offered help in our time of need. And we could each recall a season in the past three years where we did not want to come to church or thought about forgoing fellowship, YET we remembered those who encouraged us.
Those relationships when we needed it most created a tie between us and the church; it helped us see that church could be family.
So I admonish YOU. By virtue of you keeping up with my little blog, I know that you care about people's journeys. You care to see the good in the world, and you want to increase God's Kingdom here on earth while you have breath. THAT IS WHAT I LOVE ABOUT EACH OF YOU! I am so so grateful for YOU! I want to challenge you to begin praying for young adults in your church and community. We are searching, you remember those times, don't you? :) Many of us have been taught the Way to go, and need courage to return to (or stick with) it. Smile at us. Pray for us. Pray for us. Pray for us. We feel your prayers. And if you feel so inspired, reach out to some of us!
And who knows, you might really help someone or even find a friend who can learn a thing or two from your life story!
Lastly, I say thank you.
Thank you for letting your heart partner with passion God's placed in my heart. To have the older women mentor the younger ones, to help teach us to be strong in God's word, to give us a reason and a hope that we can walk with the Lord, all the days of our lives.
"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to TEACH WHAT IS GOOD. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." ~ Titus 2:3-5
Father God, thank you for the body of Christ. Thank you for the church, for encouragement, and for the power you douse us with from Heaven when we lift one another up by the word of our testimony. Today, I am grateful for those who have poured into my life. Bless them a thousand-fold today! God, I pray you continue to raise up women to support other women- bring us together, keep us from tearing one another down, so that we may life each other up and love & support each other like we are family. May those looking from the outside know us by our love, and may we glorify You each day!
Amen.
Live in the Love of the Lord,
Melly xoxo
Last night, May 29th, I had a couple of girls over!
I made a soup and some sugar free honey lemon cake (here's the link from Sheri Silver's blog, http://sherisilver.com/2013/02/21/sugar-free-honey-lemon-cake/ )! The soup had white beans, kale, turkey, Swiss chard from the farmer's market, carrots and a lot of love!
Most of you sweet readers already know, I LOVE feeding people! I love the action of gathering people together, and creating space for connection with one another and connection with God.
Last night was like that. Sure, there was food, there was laughter, and a couple dishes at the end of the night (which they helped me clean up, how nice!), but the greatest honor was to share our hearts. My friends Mariah and Maria Teresa came- both go to my home church and were in youth group with me when I was a middle-schooler. They are both a couple years older than I am, but we share a lot in common! They are wise, funny, smart, thoughtful, and most of all they are wrestling- just like I am- to figure out how to best live out their faith in a world that seems to push so hard against our Biblical values.
Here's what I aim to share with you today.
Have you ever felt alone in your faith? Maybe in the faith community, you feel like no one else has or is struggling with what you are walking through. You feel the pull of your flesh, telling you to lash out in this way or that way, and it's so easy to say yes to yield to that... yet the small tug in your soul from the Holy Spirit reminds you there is another WAY. It's just... HOW do you get there?
Friends, I used to think that I had to walk my faith alone. I didn't grow up with a whole lot of people my age and in my stage of life who were willing to walk with the Lord. So I deliberately sought out older women (usually moms or grandma's in the church) who could give me wisdom. But can I say something else? I truly have come to value the rough conversations with those my age who are also trying to figure out how to live our faith out. Things like, "I want a godly marriage and a family that I can serve God with, but how do I get there?" These are things that, while I can talk to married folk about, it isn't quite the same as someone who is single in my age range!
Can I say something else? Are there young women and men in your congregation? Encourage them. This world, especially in the Bay Area where I live, is constantly CONSTANTLY pulling at them to abandon their faith. Music, peers, TV shows, even literature and clothing stores!!! The Bible tells us that we are living in this world, but not of this world. Young adults are struggling to have support in staying the straight and narrow path.
We need people to come alongside us.
What amazed me from last night's dinner conversation was 1) how hungry each of us young women had been longing for fellowship and 2) how grateful we were for our church body. I am getting teary eyed just recollecting the content of our conversation, but all three of us gals had gone through something difficult within our families in the past three years. We each could point to members of our church body who lifted us up. Who smiled and told us it was good to see us at church today. Who offered help in our time of need. And we could each recall a season in the past three years where we did not want to come to church or thought about forgoing fellowship, YET we remembered those who encouraged us.
Those relationships when we needed it most created a tie between us and the church; it helped us see that church could be family.
So I admonish YOU. By virtue of you keeping up with my little blog, I know that you care about people's journeys. You care to see the good in the world, and you want to increase God's Kingdom here on earth while you have breath. THAT IS WHAT I LOVE ABOUT EACH OF YOU! I am so so grateful for YOU! I want to challenge you to begin praying for young adults in your church and community. We are searching, you remember those times, don't you? :) Many of us have been taught the Way to go, and need courage to return to (or stick with) it. Smile at us. Pray for us. Pray for us. Pray for us. We feel your prayers. And if you feel so inspired, reach out to some of us!
And who knows, you might really help someone or even find a friend who can learn a thing or two from your life story!
Lastly, I say thank you.
Thank you for letting your heart partner with passion God's placed in my heart. To have the older women mentor the younger ones, to help teach us to be strong in God's word, to give us a reason and a hope that we can walk with the Lord, all the days of our lives.
"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to TEACH WHAT IS GOOD. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." ~ Titus 2:3-5
Father God, thank you for the body of Christ. Thank you for the church, for encouragement, and for the power you douse us with from Heaven when we lift one another up by the word of our testimony. Today, I am grateful for those who have poured into my life. Bless them a thousand-fold today! God, I pray you continue to raise up women to support other women- bring us together, keep us from tearing one another down, so that we may life each other up and love & support each other like we are family. May those looking from the outside know us by our love, and may we glorify You each day!
Amen.
Live in the Love of the Lord,
Melly xoxo
Comments
Post a Comment