Proverbs 31

My one-year anniversary is coming up! I'm excited to celebrate this event almost as much as I was excited to get married in the first place. Excited because God is so faithful to make all things new.

There will be a special entry dedicated to God's glory through our marriage closer to the actual anniversary date, but I wanted to do something a little differently on here leading up to the anniversary for a couple of reasons. It seems that God has given me a few encouragements lately about evaluating where I'm at as His daughter, His servant and Andy's partner. I felt like the encouragements came in the following ways:

1. Through community. Our missional community is going through some transition, and we're looking to God and to one another to sharpen and refine one another as believers. Part of that involves a pursuit for greater transparency and accountability within our group. Accountability has always been sort of a scary idea for me, but this past year, I've been more grateful for it than ever. I've become aware of the effect that sin has on a life, and on every relationship that comes out of that life. Even a little sin, left alone, can fester into a life-stealing wound of the soul. Accountability gives, no- requires- that no sin get swept under the rug to ferment there and make the life, and therefore the entire body, putrid. Confession is a sweet release, a chance to expose and cleanse, an opportunity to begin renewal- and I've hungered for it and taken advantage of it when it's been available to me this past year. But we're looking at starting to make accountability a routine part of life- a "no, seriously, how are you sinning?" meeting is going to become a part of my regular agenda, so I am challenged to pursue God for awareness of where I am sinning and also wisdom concerning His standards, so that I will know the bull's eye, as I aim to please Him.

2. Through BSF. Personal Evaluation seminar is on Saturday, and so far, it's my favorite BSF seminar. It's a 2 hour time to spend with God, seeking Him as His daughter and His servant, and asking Him to help you understand how and where He wants you to strengthen, change or let go so that you can represent Him the way that He wants you to.

3. Through the women in my life. This year has brought a lot of change for a lot of the women that I know and love. There have been marriages, divorces, babies, break-ups, career changes, funerals just to name a few. And I'm astounded at how so many of the women that I know continue to seek God in new ways, continuing to yearn for greater relationship, greater dependence, greater joy- regardless of their circumstances. As an onlooker, I'm amazed at how these women press on and continue to become the women that He has made them to be.

So, what I want to do for the next couple of weeks is spend some time devoted to being a woman. So I'm going to break down Proverbs 31. When I was single, I knew this Proverb, but to be honest, I didn't love it because I wasn't a wife. But what I'm realizing is that the Proverbial woman is not just for someone with a wedding ring on her left finger. I'm beginning to see that all women are called as wives, mothers, workers, care-takers, life-givers. We're all called to this high and noble station as God's daughters- whether we marry or have children or work outside of the home or not. And what I want to do is spend some time on here looking at how we can build up one another, rather than tearing each other down. How we can appreciate one another, rather than fearing and despising each other. And how we can understand one another, though we are intentionally, magnificently different.

More to come...