Relate, Encourage, Grow

Loving God and loving others, that’s the greatest command! I can remember when I first became aware that the Bible could be applied to every area of life, I was pretty amazed! In those early years, I taught children’s ministry and I learned a Bible verse put to song to teach the children. 

“Beloved, let us love one another,

For love is of God,

And everyone that loveth is born of God

And knoweth God.

He that loveth not, knoweth not God,

For God is love.

Beloved, let us love one another. 1st John 4:7 and 8”

So, today, we don’t talk in a lot of “knoweths and loveths”, but we get the last line, “God is love, let us love one another”!

We were so encouraged at our first Brunch! We laughed and cried and laughed some more! We heard about trying to relate to others, even when they weren’t so easy to relate to or didn't want to relate to us, but trying to understand them and pray for them anyway.  

We talked about encouraging others through the hard times, when we don’t seem to have the strength to do it on our own. As we tap into the God in us, we can help others be encouraged. We talked about having community and if we don’t, it’s hard to make it when we are lone rangers.  

We were reminded about how our strength and character can be built when the storms of life come. We can choose to grow during those times and gracefully flow with the storm, not allowing it to affect us, just like a tree, gracefully bending back and forth during a storm. Just like a tree - the winds and storm make the trunk stronger and roots grow deeper. Psalm 1, says we will bear fruit when we faint not!

In our faith, we grow day by day and moment by moment. We have the choice to either let the thoughts in our mind be strengthened with who God is in us, or we can allow discouragement and negative thoughts to be our first reaction.

Ladies, let’s be there for each other! We want to encourage you over the next few months to gather a few ladies together, just three or four of you - for coffee or brunch or whatever you’d like - but to share life’s events and bathe them in prayer with each other. We need each other. That’s how God intended us to do life. As we purpose to be intentional about knowing each other’s hearts, it’ll be easier when conflicts come for us to let our first thought, let our very first thought be love!