Last spring, a couple of friends and I had gotten our kids together a time or two for play dates, and we talked about how much we would enjoy using our time together to fellowship around the things of the Lord and his word. After tossing around several ideas, we decided to read through a book over the summer and discuss it when we could get together.
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We decided to read through Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth’s book on finding intimacy with God through daily devotions, A Place of Quiet Rest.
Well, between the three of us we had quite a few little ones running around, so a book about quiet rest is a bit ironic, 😉 but what a blessing those times together were — talking about what convicted us that week, how we could apply what Nancy was teaching, and just learning what worked for one another. Sometimes we each chipped in a few dollars and hired a babysitter to referee our kids in the backyard so we could have some uninterrupted time together with COFFEE, and other times we watched the kids ourselves, made sandwiches, fixed sippy cups, and tried to remember some of the discussion questions from the book so we could keep our conversations on an encouraging track. Since last year’s summer days, my family has moved, and I miss these sisters so much, but I am so grateful for the friendships that deepened and the spiritual growth that occurred by persevering through the chaos to spend time together in fellowship around the things of God.
I began thinking about last summer’s get-togethers recently as I read Nancy’s new book, Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together. In reading through this book about womanhood (based on Titus 2), I was thinking about how much I would enjoy working through this book with my sweet girlfriends. It was a blessing to me, and I highly recommend the book.
If you’d like to read a review I wrote of Adorned, it was published here this morning, and I hope it encourages women to dive into this new book and establish (or affirm) a view of biblical womanhood for single women, married women, women with children, and older women. Just as Titus 2 deals with both older and younger women, Nancy does the same in her book, and it will be a blessing to so many women.
God strengthened and encouraged me through intentional fellowship with other women last year, and I want to challenge you to consider praying that God would provide something similar to allow you to pour into your fellow Christian sisters, as well as receive the blessing of being poured into by other Spirit-filled believers. Your get-togethers don’t have to be fancy or well-organized, although who knows if God may lead you on to a more organized fellowship, but they do need to be purposeful and centered on Scripture, just as all of our interactions with one another are to be for the purpose of giving “grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).
If you’re longing for fellowship and are challenged to really live out the family-aspect of the church, ask God to lead you to another woman (or two or ten!), and maybe talking through discussion questions from a book like Adorned would be a good jumping off place for those biblical relationship that God desires to cultivate within his church. If we three moms can do it with 9 kids under the age of 8 and two in utero (not me;), you can, too!
With love, your sister..
amanda
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