Lysa TerKeurst _{Leading Women in the Adventure of Faith}

I had an experience this week that left me feeling so vulnerable.

I walked away thinking to myself, “Why do I put myself out there? It sure would be easier to sit in my house and watch the mice dart across my kitchen.”

Which by the way, they continue to mock us though we have tried many a ‘rid your house of the mouse’ solutions. They even chewed my favorite kitchen rug. I’ve officially declared war. You can mess with my food but don’t you dare chew my pretties.

And I know many of you suggested getting a cat which would be a great suggestion if I wasn’t so highly emotionally allergic to the creature called feline.

I am also emotionally allergic to the vulnerability of rejection. But that’s exactly where I ventured this week. I think most Jesus girls feel this way. And I think His mercies towards us are especially tender because He knows what we feel.

Which leads me to a fear I have with the She Speaks Scholarship winners that will be announced tomorrow. We will all cheer and clap and be genuinely excited for the winners.

But, there were close to 200 blog entries and 100 more e-mail entries. That’s 300 applicants vying for 4 scholarships.

So, I know there will be many of you who eagerly rush to your computer on Friday morning with every finger and toe crossed having prayed and prayed and prayed… and your name won’t be there. Your heart will sink. And some part of not seeing your name will sting.

And I hate that.

I wish with every fiber of my being I could give away a scholarship to every single entry. But just as I start doing mental math and thinking of crazy possibilities, Jesus reminds me and reassures me He’s got this all under control.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us,” (1 John4:16).

Those who are supposed to come will be provided for by Him. And in that provision will be a miraculous experience of God. Getting the She Speaks scholarship would be an incredible disservice to that person because God wants to show up and show off in much bigger ways.

“Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help,” (Hebrews 4:16).

There are also those who are not supposed to be at She Speaks this year. God is answering some prayers with, “No, sweetheart. Please trust me with this.” ‘No’ is so stinkin’ hard to hear but we can rest in the reality that God’s no’s are always wrapped in protection and redirected purpose.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,” (Romans 8:28).

As I ran this morning with Holly, we prayed so fervently over all this. We prayed for the judges to have divine wisdom and discernment. We prayed for hearts to be protected. And we prayed for dreams to be realized in the exact way God desires.

Rest in this today my sisters.

And like my friend Samantha said on the Proverbs Facebook page yesterday- let your soul soak in each one of these words {My} {Redeemer} {Lives}.

Yes, He does.

I need to press this into my heart and mind today. What about you? Whether you entered the scholarship contest or not, how do these truths soothe your heart today?

See you in the morning sweet friends…

I’ve been knee deep in a cotton project the past couple of days.

Did you know cotton is is grown in 17 states in the USA with Texas being the largest producer? Me neither. And did you know we can eat, wear and feed our animals with cotton products? Me neither. Seriously, we wear cotton, eat snack crackers with cotton oil in them and feed our animals products with crushed cotton seed hulls in them.

Do you care about all this? Me neither.

However, the display board Brooke painted is a jammin’ shade of hot pink with lime green accents. But we won’t talk about how the paint made the board curve and is now refusing to stand up properly.

No, we won’t talk about that because it’s little things like that make me want to rush to the bathroom and furiously pluck grey hairs out of my head.

So, I have three questions today:

1. Do you happen to live near a state with blooming cotton buds right now? Somehow, I am thinking no since it takes 25 weeks to go from seed to cotton and growing season doesn’t start at the earliest until February.

But maybe, someone else has done a cotton project and has a few samples of cotton in the bloom complete with seeds? If so, please let me know.

2. Also, can you check your pantry and see if you have any snack crackers or cookies that have cotton seed oil in them? Though our research says this, I can’t for the life of me find which ones. Maybe it’s because they call it something like: monosudotanziocramiophylinguisticsodiumate. I totally made that up. So don’t go looking for that hard word on your snack packages. Just cotton seed oil- anyone?

3. On a completely different note, educate me today on how you keep your e-mails organized. I have fallen and I can’t get up. I will feature your wisdom on an upcoming post.

Happy Wednesday friends…

Happy Tuesday Bloggy Friends…

There are a couple of things I’ve been meaning to mention for a while now but have been a little distracted by small things like mice invasions and my car only wanting to drive in reverse.

Small things.

Anyhow,I wanted to create some things you could pass along to a friend in need of some encouragement that would make it easier to connect her with the message of “Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl.” I have been so excited by the stir this message is creating.

This past weekend in Massachusetts I gave this message to 390 women from Westfield Evangelical Free Church where we saw 38 women make decisions to follow Jesus. Y’all, I love to watch Jesus move hearts in such a mighty way!

Maybe you have a friend you’ve been praying for who is either resistant to Jesus or who seems stuck in checklist Christianity. I wrote this book so you could easily pass it along to her and say, “Look, even if you’re skeptical you’ll at least like this woman’s stories. Just skip the Bible stuff if you want to, but be sure to read about the day she found a mattress floating in her pond.”

And then trust that Jesus will stir her heart into reading the Bible stuff too.

Chances are this friend has been hurt by life. I know what she feels like. I lived there and I’m gut honest in the book about what that feels like. Anyhow, if you need something to pave the way for her to get the book, there’s two things you might start with giving her.

The first is a free printable sheet called “When God Hurts Your Feelings.” Do you see that button off to the right side of my blog? Just click on it and you’ll see how to change ‘why questions into ‘what now questions.’

For those of you who read this post via email, you’ll want to hop over to my actual blog by going to www.LysaTerKeurst.com and you’ll see what I’m referring to.

Also, I realized I’d never shown you the book trailer video Zondervan made for Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl. This would be another easy thing to pass along to your friends.

Thank you so much for helping spread the word about this message. Will you join me in praying God will use it to continue to stir hearts, change lives, and encourage Jesus girls to become more than good Bible study girls? Love to you friends…

To get your copy of Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl… click here for the book, here for the DVD teaching series and here for the workbook.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrF5ETpvsfY]

Oh my heavenly daisies.

I am a bit distracted this morning because there are two… not one which would be bad enough… but two mice in my kitchen this morning. Y’all would think I live in some sort of trash heap or something. Which I don’t.

But the mice, they find their way in. And they are getting more and more brave.

They run out and give me the stare down while I sit here trying to type on the blog. And update my facebook. Which by the way I’m on facebook now. Which doesn’t mean much because I’m so clueless… every time I try to post a comment somewhere Holly’s face pops up on my comments. It’s the craziest thing.

Anyhow… the mice. It’s like they can’t believe the audacity I have to invade THEIR space.

And here’s the really bad part.

I’m reading in James this morning. Lovely book. It’s a book tucked between Hebrews (which so sounds like it should be in the Old Testament but is in fact found toward the end of the New Testament) and 1 Peter. And James is all about putting your faith into action which is motivating me to keep a sweet attitude today.

But here’s the bad part.

James 2: 15, “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs what good is it?’ ” I am reading this while trying to put my sweet on today.

But all I want to do in this minute is KILL TWO MICE.

Y’all.

I don’t really want to kill them. I just want to uninvite them from our planet on a permanent basis. And while they are technically not brothers and sisters… they are without clothes and food and are probably a little chilly outside. So then I start feeling all sorry for these creatures.

My daughter would be oh so thrilled to know of their existence and would BEG me to let her keep them. But the three hamsters we have tried to love and care for did not fair so well. One of our dogs felt it his personal mission to rescue us from the small creatures in the hot pink cage.

While a babysitter was here.

And she felt so badly about the situation, she told us she the wrapped the hamsters up and put them in our freezer so we could bury them as a family. But I forgot she said that. A friend found them in my freezer months later when she pulled out a frozen pizza with a plastic bag stuck to it.

Ahem.

And I can’t really say much else about the trauma of that situation. Except that we might be the only family in America who got a note from the principal a few days after the hamster situation informing us that we were no longer qualified to host the class guinea pig for weekend visits.

I kid you not.

So, this is the house these mice chose to visit.

And my dog who felt so compelled to rescue me from creatures in a hot pink cage? He just walked right by the mice running about the kitchen, shook his head, and went back to bed.

Maybe he had been reading in James this morning too.

We’ll get to the free conference call in just a minute.

First, Sanya King from Beams of Light Ministries… call your mama! You are the “Becoming More” Friday feature and I couldn’t be more excited. Contact holly@Proverbs31.org and we’ll get a prize mailed off to you! Sanya wrote on her blog:

I cannot think of a more open, honest and candid book than “Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl.” Yes, I know more about Lysa, but more importantly, I know more about how God is so real in everyday situations and circumstances.

For me, becoming more than just a good Bible study girl is essential. Thank you Lysa for a sweet reminder to stay focused on what is most important; loving the Lord with my whole heart. For me, that’s becoming more than a good Bible study girl.

Thank you Sanya! Wow, I am honored and deeply encouraged by your kind words. I’m going to go call my mama and tell her to read what you wrote.

If you’d like to be part of a Friday Feature, be sure to leave a comment on the post linked here.

Now, about the free conference call opportunity… If you have read or are going to read “Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl” this my gift to you!

This past Tuesday I presented a talk on “Becoming More in your Prayer Life.” I know, yawn yawn right? No! This isn’t your typical put you to sleep talk about prayer.

I am so excited about what God is teaching me right now and I want to give you access to this message. All you have to do is call in and listen to the whole recorded message right from your phone.

If you are interested e-mail Holly@Proverbs31.org and put “Becoming More in your Prayer Life” in the subject line.

Happy Friday y’all!

Welcome “Encouragement for Today” readers… I’m glad you’re here.

The year was 1982. I was in the 7th grade.

With frizzy brown hair, bucked teeth, and a knock off brand Izod I walked down the pea green hallway of Raa Middle School. It was the day after student counsel elections.

The day after my classmates confirmed what I’d so desperately feared. If you didn’t have beauty, boobs, and boyfriends no one would vote for you.

I shuffled toward my locker wishing I was invisible. I kept my eyes down while I willed my feet to just keep walking. Finally, my locker was in site. That glorious metal box was my one space in this world of catty girls with cute outfits and spiral permed hair. The space where I could hide my face, let the tears slip, and pretend to be busy shuffling books.

But instead of finding respite in that tiny metal space, I found one of my election posters plastered to the front with the word, “loser” scrawled across the front. How do you quickly hide a poster sized proclamation by the world that you aren’t good enough, cool enough, pretty enough, or accepted enough?

Books dropping, girls laughing, tape ripping, poster board crunching were sounds throbbing in my ears as the poster board resisted my attempts to ball it up small enough to fit into the mouth of the hallway trashcan.

“Please fit, please fit, please fit! Oh God please help this stupid poster from this stupid election with my stupid face on it disappear into this stupid trashcan!”

The bell rang. And as all the ‘normal’ people scampered past me I heard Stephanie’s voice like a dagger’s death blow whisper, “Loser.”

I turned and saw my one confidant. My one friend. My one secret holder being welcomed into the popular girl’s circle. Her public rejection of me was her ticket in to the crowd we’d secretly loathed together. Together.

I sank down beside the stupid trashcan where the stupid poster slowly untwisted on the ground in front of me. Loser.

I remembered this last night as I sat in front of a group of young high school students. Girls who vulnerably shared how hard peer relationships can be. They described tangled relationships and feelings of loneliness so consuming they sometimes wished the world would open up and swallow them whole.

I understood their feelings all too well. I have felt the sting of loneliness. I felt it in the flat chested stage of middle school. I have felt it in the sagging chested stage of adulthood. Relationships can be hard no matter what age you are. And here’s the real kicker.

I always thought my ticket to acceptance would have come had I won that school election. Not so. For I’ve discovered on the other side of achievements if you were lonely before you win, you’ll be lonely after you win. No amount of outward success can give you inward acceptance.

I’ve only been able to find that in the comfort of one who will never reject me. The one who knows what it feels like to be rejected though he should have been the most accepted. The one who will sit with me and remind me rejection from man doesn’t equal rejection from God. The one who whispers to the girl sitting at the foot of the locker, “Who are they to put a label on you? The label can only stick if you let it.”

Hebrew reminds me of a lot I need to remember…

Hebrews 2:

v. 14- He (Jesus) shared in their humanity (He has personally felt what you feel)

v. 15- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery (He can conquer this tough situation)

v. 18- Because he himself suffered when he was tempted (He perfectly comforts those suffering)

v. 18 b- he is able to help those who are being tempted (and is able to show you what to do)

Hebrews 3:1, ” … fix your thoughts on Jesus,” (Don’t get consumed with the situation rather consume your thoughts with His perspective, His truth, and His certain victory for you.)

Hebrews 4: 15-16, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we many receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

And of course I have to throw in a little 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7, “God is just; He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled…”

And all the Jesus girls who have ever sat crying at the foot of trashcan said, Amen! And Amen!

If you can relate to this post… consider reading my book “Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl.” If you have a book club or Bible Study you would also enjoy the DVD teaching series by the same title. You can find those here and here.