Here’s a note to the other 29 ladies in the Beth Moore group — and to anyone else who’s joining along with us in our endeavor to study Living Beyond Yourself. Don’t give up! I’ve been to many of your blogs over the weekend, and we ladies have a lot of stuff going on in our lives! This is only the second week of the study, and I know some of you are already behind and feeling bad about it.

It doesn’t matter! Whatever you have going on — kids demanding your attention, a house full of company, spring break, suitcases full of dirty laundry from returning from trips, earthquakes (someone in our group blogged about an earthquake last week!) You don’t have to do every bit of the homework — and you don’t have to blog about anything profound. It’s very intimidating to be “on” every day you post something — especially when there are hundreds (thousands?) of people who are reading your words and criticizing you (good or bad).

If you can just turn on the video or audio and listen to Beth Moore’s teaching, that’s the most important thing in this study, I feel. Because she’s in the Word so much while she’s teaching, and she’s digging deeper than many of us have been in a while. Even if you can only listen to one segment, it’s still better than nothing.

We’ve got nine more weeks — we can do it! This group will go until June 2. Now what would be more fun than getting dressed up in a cute new outfit and going out with your friends to hear a speaker like Beth Moore? We’d of course go out for dessert afterward and laugh a lot, right? So that’s what we’re doing here, when we download the video onto our computers — in our own time, when the kids are napping or asleep (or crawling all over us…)

Here’s a verse for you [with my interruptions]:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses [the other members of this LBY group!], let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles [worrying that we’re behind], and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us [the next nine weeks, until June 2].

Hebrews 12:1-3

It’s all about JOY!

I needed to read this verse today — because I’m weary. There’s something funky going on in the April atmosphere around here, and I’ve lost my voice (it sounds all scratchy), and I’m behind on all the yukky, boring things I need to spend my time doing. So, I’m going to write out this verse and hang it up on the wall in three places in my house: over my kitchen sink (where I’ve got to spend a lot of time today), in my laundry room (which is not really a room, only a closet; I’ve got to spend a lot of time there too), and over my bathroom sink (because I’m feeling really, really discouraged about my weight that is never going to come off. Now that my baby is turning one, can it still be called postpartum?)

I’m looking forward to what Beth has to teach me this week — and although I may not come up with anything profound to write, I know I’ll be blessed for at least digging into the Word.