Warning: Get your favorite beverage first.

At my little church in my little town, we have an on-again, off-again Sunday night Women’s Bible Study. We are a rather odd collection of souls, ranging in age from 20 to the 70+ “zone”. Some of us are die-hard pew occupants; some of us rarely darken the door because of busy schedules during the week. If I had to guess, some of us think conservatively and some of us are quite liberal. Some of us really want to chew on The Word and some of us are so tired that we just want to be bottle-fed anything spiritual. Some of us never miss a session; some of us come only intermittently at best. But, one thing is true of all of us.

We care about each other. A lot.

I now consider these women, young and old alike, my spiritual mentors. They each give me something unique. One makes me laugh when I get too serious. One reminds me that one day all I will want is a visit from a church member while I “wait upon the Lord” to call me to my eternal home. One reminds me to follow the rules when it’s tempting to bend them to their very breaking point. One reminds me that I’m very blessed to have the family I have. It’s as if God hand-picked these women to gently work on all the areas of my life where I need some sanctification.

Our leader/founder of this study, our former pastor’s wife, has moved away. She left a big hole when she left. A hole that no one will ever be quite able to fill. But, letting this little group dissipate into spiritual oblivion didn’t seem right, either.

With great reluctance, I am trying to fill her shoes. My recent health adventures and my brother’s illness did not help much. Thankfully, the rest of the group carried on when I had to care for my brother. In fact they flourished, if you ask me!

Last Sunday night we started Children of the Day, Beth Moore’s latest study on 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. I was thrilled to see several new faces! Welcome, welcome, welcome! We hope you will feel at home in our group! I am at your disposal any time you need help or have questions. Go here to send me an email for that purpose.

As I prepared for this study, I got a crazy idea: “See if Living Proof Ministries (Beth Moore’s organization) will allow you to blog about Children of the Day.” Since Beth’s stuff is always well-copyrighted, I was sure I would get a big “NO!” from them. But, I emailed and asked. They miraculously gave me permission! So, Wednesday posts, for several weeks, will be about my thoughts on this study. Those who don’t live in my area can get the audio CDs for a reasonable amount and can get viewer guides online for free at Lifeway.com!

You can also purchase the Member Book (containing the daily homework) for $ 15.95. This book is available in paperback and as an e-book. While I am encouraging my readers to buy e-books (It’s green and your whole library is in one device that you don’t have to dust!), this  may be the one time you want to get an actual paperback, since you can fill in the blanks and take notes. Yes, there is a way to take notes on e-books, but it’s not always an easy proposition. However, that paperback is a big, heavy paperback, so you may prefer your lightweight e-reader!

And for those attending the study, I hope you will augment your Sunday night sessions with Beth’s DVDs by reading these posts as you do your weekly homework. Your insights will probably be better than mine, so don’t hesitate to submit a comment below. And if you’re following along (from a distance), please feel free to do the same!

To the guys: I will try to keep these posts “generic” enough that you can also “benefit”, even if you’re not female and not doing the study! Biblical truths are for everyone!

To those who haven’t seen or heard Beth’s first lesson, let me start by telling you that there are 4 levels of study for Children of the Day. Level 1 participants just listen to each lesson by Beth and fill in the Viewer Guides. Level 2 participants add in the daily homework. Level 3 students write out part or all of these two books of the Bible, in addition to the Level 2 study plan. The back of the Member’s book contains space for that. Level 4 requires all of the above plus memorizing part or all of these two books!

Beth asks each person to commit to a certain level of the study prior to beginning the study. It would be easy to do that, except that she puts one caveat in the instructions. She suggests that if you think you can do a particular level without any problem, to “up it” one notch and go for the next level. Thanks a lot, Beth.

Before I read this paragraph in her introduction, I knew I could do Level 2 since I had done her Daniel study already. So,I guess I’m writing out 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. This wouldn’t be a huge chore, except that I have the biggest and floweriest handwriting on the planet. I have a feeling I’m going to need a lot of paper. I’m so glad she didn’t choose Psalms for this study. The stuff I get myself into! Egad.

Our little group will be taking off this coming Sunday, due to the Labor Day weekend, so I am going to defer my reflections on what I’ve read and heard so far until next Wednesday. That will allow those of you who want to do the study on your own an opportunity to order or pick up the member book and/or CDs/DVDs. Once you have them in your possession, you will need to listen to the first lesson and start your daily homework (if you’re doing Level 2). If you’re doing Level 3 or 4, this is also your opportunity to get started on those tasks, too.

If you are new to my blog, you may find it easier to follow the Wednesday posts if you subscribe by e-mail. (I also post links on my Facebook page, Maryann In Progress. The links there are also tweeted at @MAinProgress.) But, if you subscribe, fair warning! You will also get emails about my Monday and Friday posts as well. The Monday post is the Word of the Week post, which is usually fun and short. But, my Friday posts are usually about whatever hits me as interesting and can be quite lengthy! I have a Book Club and one Friday post is dedicated to reviewing that month’s book selection. I also usually post about the Odd Holidays of each month and this month I am doing my first product review! So, you never know what I might blather about on Fridays!

Yes, it’s okay to share my posts with others. To do that, you will need to actually click on the title of the post. That will put sharing options on the left of your screen. Hope to see your comments next Wednesday for my first reflections about Children of the Day!

Friday’s Post: My First Product Review!

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