A gathering of God's little princesses

Last week kicked off our first grade mother-daughter bible study.  All first grade girls and their moms were invited to my friend Cindy's house for fellowship and a bible study.  Cindy has an amazing heart for these little girls and puts so much into planning our meetings.  She has searched and searched for a mother-daughter bible study for this age group, but none exist, so she is paving her own way and trusting that God is going to give her a plan. 

What a plan He gave her for last weekend.  The girls were invited to dress as princesses.  They loved it!  Cindy introduced the study time by sharing with the girls that since God, who is the King of Kings calls each of them his daughter, they are true princesses.  (sniff, sniff).  She explained that each month we will look at characteristics of some of God's "princesses" found in the Bible.




Each girl and her mom took time alone to discuss the characteristics of a princess.  They each chose one or two to write on a pink crown and  then shared it with the group.  The characteristics the girls came up with were beautiful.  Many were internal things not physical - which gave me hope for these young princesses!

According to our little princesses...

A Princess is....  kind, good, adventurous, a leader, special, gentle, someone who cares about others. 







There was a lesson about Tabitha, one of God's daughters who displayed the princess characteristic of kindness.  We discussed kindness and Matthew 7:12 (the golden rule).

Our Princesses decorated folders which will hold the bible story sheets they get each month.

And finally my favorite part of this group... we broke into small groups of mothers and daughters for prayer.  The mothers prayed first for the girls in the group and then the girls took turns praying for the friend to their right. I love this time of modeled prayer for the girls.  Time when they can learn the importance of praying with and for their friends. 

Cindy made sure no 1st grade girl was left out.  She made hearts with the names of each little girl who could not be there, as well as the 1st grade teachers.  She passed out these hearts before our prayer time.  (How awesome is that!)


This group meets monthly during the school year.  I look forward to sharing each month's meeting with you.  Cindy and I both hope that these posts will encourage moms to start a mother-daughter bible study for their daughter's class.  We both hope the ideas Cindy comes up with, and I share here, will inspire additional moms out there to join us.  And please share your ideas with us.  We would love to hear them!

Orrange Family Update and Prayer Request

 

A week or so ago I blogged about my friend Courtney who moved recently to Sierra Leone with her young family.  Several of you e-mailed, commented or have personally asked me to keep you updated on them.  Well I didn't think I would be updated you so soon... but need some prayers my friends.  Courtney's daughter Brooklyn (8) has been very sick for over a week now.  She has been diagnosed with Typhoid and has today been admitted to the hospital.  Please pray for healing for this sweet little girl who is far, far from home, and her mom and dad (Brent) who are so very concerned. 

Half is still too much

For 18 months, Pete and I thought we were relocating outside of the US, so I was on a mission to get rid of our stuff.  Now I don't think of myself as a "stuff" person.  I don't like to give or get gifts of "stuff."  Give me a gift card for Starbucks or a massage and I am a happy girl.  Have someone come clean my bathrooms and I will weep. Stuff on the other hand isn't quite my thing, but somehow our family has accumulated WAY too much stuff.  I blame it on living in a house with a basement (it is a well known fact that junk breeds down there) and the children (little people come with SO much stuff!). 

So for 18 months I got rid of stuff.  I went closet to closet getting rid of half of the contents of every closet, cabinet, and drawer.   I had two HUGE garage sales.  My neighbors came and wondered where all the stuff had come from.  I didn't know.  At the second sale a woman approached me and asked in broken English, "they die here?"  It took me a minute.  "They die here?" she asked again. 

She thought we had DIED and it was an estate sale.  She thought we were selling the total possessions of a family. 

Oh, I was mortified...but mostly because the house was still full of stuff. 

When we found out that we were moving to Raleigh and would be in a rental home for up to a year, I once again went through all our stuff.  Half of our stuff would be unpacked, half would stay boxed ready to move again. 

So this is what our garage here looks like. 

The attic also looks like that...and half of the loft...and a lot of hidden little closets.  There are lots and lots of boxes waiting to be opened when we move again. 

Now six months into a life with half our stuff (actually about 1/4 compared to where we begin.)  I have come to three sad conclusions. 

1.  I don't miss anything that is sitting in one of those boxes. (I am not even sure what they are.)

2.  We unpacked too much stuff.  

3.  I can't remember a SINGLE item I sold at those two garage sales. 

I have started reading Jen Hatmaker's new book, 7:  An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.  The book chronicles Jen, her husband, and sometimes her children taking 7 months to confront head-on the excess of their very normal American lives.  For one month each, they GREATLY reduce their food, clothes, possessions, shopping, waste, media and stress.

Jen is a hilarious, honest and challenging voice in the Christian marketplace asking can we really say we follow Jesus while living in such enormous excess and waste.  It is something that is challenging me a lot these days.  My friend Amy suggested we do the 7 experiment and start with our hubbies' stuff.  Oh she is brilliant. 

Hang onto your computers babe, hide your bitty baby and her 76 coordinating outfits Emmie - Momma is on a roll ... apparently half is still too much.