Thursday, May 31, 2007

Join the Group!

I'm so excited! We have several gals getting ready to join our Bible study. squeeeee!

If you're wanting to join in (even if you just want to read along and "listen in" to our discussions), you need to join the Google Group. If you haven't already joined, or I haven't invited you to join, then click the link right over here >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You can request membership from the group homepage, or you can email me and I can add you directly.

email me at the address below, removing the spaces...

auburn gal always @ gmail.com

Get your book. As soon as we are all ready, we'll get started... next week maybe?

I'm sooooooo ready for this.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

(taken from the inside cover)

Let your love dictate how you deal with me;
teach me from your textbook on life.
I'm your servant -- help me understand what that means,
the inner meaning of your instructions ....
Break open your words, let the light shine out,
let ordinary people see the meaning.
--Psalm 119:124-125, 130

We're all yearning for understanding -- for truth, wisdom, and hope. Whether we suffer in the simmering quiet of uncertainty or the megaphone cacophony of disbelief, we long for a better life -- a more meaningful existence. We want to be Women Who Matter. But the fog of "real life stuff" we encounter every day obscures the life we crave, so we go on with the way things are.

Sometimes we pretend we don't care.
We do.
Sometimes we pretend everything is fine.
It isn't.

The truth is, the real life stuff matters. In that fog, there are things about our husbands, our children, our friendss, our work, and, most significantly, ourselves that cause varying degrees of distress, discomfort, and disease.

The "Real Life Stuff for Women" series is a safe place for exploring truth about that fog. But it's not a typical Bible study. You won't find any fill-in-the-blank questions in these pages. Nor will you find any pat answers. It's likely you'll come away with more questions rather than fewer. But through personal reflection and -- in a small group -- lively discussion (the best part of a Bible study anyway), these books will tak eyou where you need to go and bring greater hope and meaning to your life.

Each of the books in this series provides a place to ask the hard questions of yourself an dothers, a place to find comfort in the chaos, a place to enlarge understanding, and -- with the guidance of the Holy Spirit -- a place to discover Real Life Hope that brings meaning to the everyday.
(taken from back cover)

To say we're busy is like saying Greenland has ice. We're running as fast as we can -- to work, school, church, sports, music lessons, the mall -- but the faster we run and the more places we run to, the more some of us feel we're really running nowhere.

With a few girlfriends who are just as wiped out but want to get somewhere too, you can link arms and begin figuring out how you can get off the treadmill. With this fresh new discussion guide that brings together literary and culturall insights, conversation starters, and key passages from The Message, you can discover together what God has to say about the stress in your life -- your schedule, expecgtations, limits, happiness, and much more. You can find encouragement and insight to stop running nowhere and start walking somewhere with God.

Designed for small groups, yet just as useful for personal studyd, this lively, relevatan, and easy-to-use Bible study series for women is based on The Message, the eye-opening translation by Eugene Peterson. The series provides a safe place for exploring the truths that matter, taking you where you need to go and bringing greater hope and meaning to your life.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Hello and Good Morning

Um. So. Yeah.

At my main blog, I write about all kinds of random, crazy, nonsensical things. The only theme is me, my babies, me, my husband, me, my Lord, me, my depressing life, me... And, did I mention me?

But here, I want to do something specific. I want to follow through with an idea I had (no, not original, but what is original in the blogworld now?) and actually, you know, do something. Accomplish something.

So, here's what I have in mind, and I hope you will join in and play along and contribute and help and have some fun with me. I want to do a Bible study. I have this really cute little book that promises to understand me and help me to grow to know my Lord more and be a better Christian, all while having pretty colors and cute shoes on the cover.

Running Nowhere In Every Direction (2 links.)

So, how 'bout this...

First - Leave a comment here about your interest in doing this study with me. I'll create a yahoo group or something that will let our study and discussion be more "conversational" and then post the link to it (or invite you to join, whichever works best.) (I'll have to go figure that out first, since I've never done that kind of thing before. It shouldn't be hard though.)

Two - Go find the book or order it from an online store.

C - Do all this by May 31.

Finally - When we've got the group created and all the members joined, we'll start reading and discussing a chapter/lesson per week. They're pretty short, so that should be manageable. And then to try to share our study with the BlogWorld, I'll choose (or take recommendations from the group) a member's discussion about each week's lesson and post it here.



If you've done this type thing before and have suggestions about how to do it better, PLEASE share. This is my first attempt at this and would certainly appreciate the input.



Ok? Wannajoin?

Looking forward to it!