Before all our kids hit the teen years and got busy beyond belief, I did Summer Bible study with the most amazing group of women ever. Life-changing studies; life-changing relationships. I'm pretty confident that in heaven, we'll hang out the front porch of the mansion and talk about what the Father did in our lives during that season. It was huge.
As I've gone through the struggle of missing Bible study after returning to work, I've realized just how essential my women's Bible study relationships were to keeping me in God's Word, off the street, and out of trouble.
I was floundering as summer approached. We had a family crisis rearrange our lives in a major way. My heart was wounded, not only by the immediate crisis, but by some incidents that had happened several years ago. I had no idea how deeply those far-off events had cut into my heart or that instead of letting the Lord heal me, I'd taken my own spiritual duct tape and bound my own wounds... Out of sight? Wounds gone! Only not.
No, really they were festering untreated beneath the layers and layers and layers of figurative duct tape. The pain of this spring let me know that my heart had never healed.
In May, I decided... on what I thought was a whim... to ask in a couple of places online if anyone wanted to do SBS again. Several answered that they did. I did what all super-spiritual Bible study women do to find the study: I googled, and I found a four-session DVD study by Beth Moore called Loving Well. The picture I had in my mind was of people in my workplace I needed to love well. God's picture was a LOT bigger and more colorful than the one I'd imagined. I simply adore the way He shows His sovereignty. Life-changing on a daily basis.
We have one more session to go--one set of homework and a wrap-up dinner. It's been fun and it's been painful. Have YOU ever had duct tape wound tightly around your heart, only to have the Lord take it off? The is most definitely pain, but there is also healing.
I sat watching the last video, which I had no idea featured Beth telling the hairbrush story that I posted earlier this summer, and it all came together for me.
Loving well... doing a good job of loving others
Loving well... the spiritual source of love -- God Himself; all love pours from Him, the Loving Well
Loving well... loving others from a heart that God has healed
The English teacher in me is giddy about the way the Lord spoke three different definitions of well through Beth. I think He did that just for me... loving well x 3.
1 comment:
It has been life changing. And the best part was sharing the study time with you.
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