August 27, 2010
Laura Reynolds
Most mornings when I roll out of bed and stumble to the bathroom, the face in the mirror looks more like a character from a scary movie than my own. Shortly after gazing upon such a frightening profile I proceed to shower, dress, and make myself presentable for the day. But what if one morning I wake up, see how bad the face in the mirror looks, forget about, and leave to face the world with mascara smudges, crazy hair, and all? James says that failing to be obedient to the truth is just like forgetting what I see in the mirror. “But be ...
August 24, 2010
Kristen Carr
"You are familiar with all my ways." Psalm 139:9
Wow, I mean, are girls relational or what?! Young and old, small and big, loud and quiet, girls are created as relational beings. We have sleepovers and stay up till 4a.m. whispering and laughing, sharing stories and secrets. We pass notes in school, cost our parents zillions of dollars in texting and phone bills and cause more epic drama than any soap opera script writer could ever drum up.
Why? The answer is as simple as it is complicated: as much as we long to be known, we are ...
August 19, 2010
Laura Reynolds
“How do you know you’ll be happy with the same guy for the rest of your life?” The bubble senior girl asked over coffee. “You don’t.” I quickly responded. “Marriage isn’t about your happiness.” Part of me grieved because she’d been so influenced by our culture’s decree that happiness is the goal for relationships and life in general. The other part of me grieved because she’d been a part of our youth group since sixth grade, not only as a participant but as a leader and one of our most committed girls. Not to mention she can from a strong ...
August 14, 2010
Laura Reynolds
I learned the hard way. I’m sure it’s happened to you, too. I logged onto facebook, and there was a peculiar line in my news feed; a girl in the youth group had joined a group that would make even her father blush. A wave of questions washed through my head. What should I do? Should I call her parents? Should I confront her myself? Maybe I should just ignore the issue all together.
The next Sunday I approached her as soon as possible, asked why in the world she did that, and then proceeded to demand that she tell her parents or I was going ...
August 09, 2010
Kristen Carr
This past Sunday I heard a pastor compare sharing the good news of Jesus' love to pancakes and butter. Interesting right? He said that many of us think that if we "plop" Jesus love in the middle of our community -- much like we would "plop" a dab of butter in the center of a pancake -- than it will certainly "melt" all around and cover the entire pancake. The problem with this line of thinking, he went on to explain, is that our community isn't like a pancake. It's like a waffle ... It has walls.
So true. I would say the same thing ...
August 06, 2010
Laura Reynolds
We had waited for this day for 5 months. Would our lives soon be filled with trucks and trains or would we be living in a world of pink? It didn’t matter if our baby was a boy or a girl, but we (mostly me) longed to know. Our little one was quite stubborn, or perhaps just modest, but finally we caught a glimpse; the little person growing inside me was a girl!
I didn’t feel the weight of this until later that day. I had devoted my life to ministering to girls and discipling them to be mature, godly women. I had routinely encouraged mothers ...
August 04, 2010
Kristen Carr
It's that time of year again! Pencils are being sharpened, teens everywhere are packing out malls buying new diggs ... and you are sitting in your office trying to plan your 2011 calendar so that your budget gets done on time. Good times right?
Well, whether you have a supervisor or finance office breathing down your neck right about now or not, this is a great time to begin considering just what your ministry to the teen girls you work with will look like this next calendar year. Which means that God, you and God's word are about to get ...
|
| Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
| May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
| Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
| May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
| Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
| May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
| Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
|
