Bible Study & My List

Tonight I did something that I've been wanting to do for a long time: I joined a women's Bible study at church. Our church has lots of Bible Studies offered on Wednesday nights during our Kid's Bible Club for grades k-5 and middle school youth group. Last year, I helped teach the pre-school KBC class, and for a long time before that, I helped with middle school youth group. This year, I decided that I really wanted to join a Bible study instead on Wednesday nights. I had a speech all ready and prepared to turn down whoever was going to ask me to help with KBC again, and I was actually nervous about it. Well in the end, no one asked me to help out with anything! So I'm taking that as a sign that this Bible study is where God wants me to spend my Wednesday nights :-)

I decided to join a Bible study led by Rachel (my neighbor/cousin/one of my best friends. I write about her a lot :-)). She is leading a study on the Joyce Meyer book: "Battlefield of the Mind." I really think this is going to be such a great study for where I am in my life right now. This is because I am a WORRIER. I worry about things that people REALLY just shouldn't worry about. I worry about work. I worry about whether people at work like me. I worry about whether my students are learning anything from me. I worry about what I will be doing next school year, even though this one just started. I worry about making Luke happy. I worry about spending way too much time on the internet. I worry that I'm getting fat. I worry that God can't use me because I'm too shy. I worry about money. I worry about what I wear and what I look like. I worry that my hair is too frizzy. I worry that I won't be able to have children although we are years away from trying. I worry about my sister and about my parents. Do you get the picture? My mind IS a battlefield that I am constantly struggling with. It's actually exhausting.

I had never really thought about the fact that I can really CONTROL my mind. I don' thave to think those thoughts. I can fill my mind with good things so that Satan doesn't have room to fill it with worries and self-doubts. That would be so much less depressing and less exhausting!! :-)

The really awesome thing about tonight was that I learned that I am SOOO not alone in this. Isn't that refreshing?? It was for me :-)

So anyway, this study will last until December, and I'm super pumped to get started reading the book! I think I'll start after I get done watching ANTM :-)

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On a side note, I get to cross one more thing off of my 101 things in 1001 days list: "Find a Bible study to attend regularly."

When I went to edit that post so that I could turn that into a completed item, I read through my list again just to keep it fresh in my mind. Turns out I've finished a few that I forgot were on the list! So I haven't even been doing this challenge for a month yet, and here are all the things I've finished:

- "Volunteer in the church library." A few weeks ago I turned myself in as a volunteer for the "library committee." (I gave it that name just now :-P) There are only 4 or 5 of us on the "committee", but I'm pretty pumped about it! We are getting ready to build onto our church, and the library will be in a whole new location. The committee was put together to take an inventory of the books and help with some of the logistical decisions facing the new library location. Also, I volunteered to write up a monthly paragraph to put in our church newsletter about the library and whatever good or new books are worth telling about :-) We are going to start the inventory in the next week or two, and I'm pretty excited!! I hate to admit this, but sometimes I have a really bad attitude helping with the children at church. Everyone asks me because they know I'm a teacher, but honestly, 35 hours a week with hundreds of little kids makes it so hard to volunteer with the kids at church too, and have a good attitude and willing heart about it. I'm so glad I found a behind-the-scenes area to serve that I have a good attitude about. Plus I love reading, so what could be better? (Wow, I didn't mean to write that much!)

- "Find a Bible study to attend regularly."

- "Set up a regular prayer/devotional time and place. Stick to it!" This one was accomplished as soon as school started. I normally have between 15 and 20 extra minutes every morning before I go to work. I do my devotions during that time in the living room. It's such a great way to start my day! During this time I read a chapter or two of the Bible, and some of whatever devotional book I happen to be reading at the time. I'm also working on my goal to read through the entire Bible at this time. I've read through the New Testament numerous times, but decided that it's about time I tackled the OT. I'm halfway through Exodus right now, and am REALLY enjoying reading the story of Moses. It's so awesome to read about all the old Bible stories, and see how the same principles that were taught then can still apply today (Other than all the legalistic stuff. But that's still interesting to learn about, too!)

- "Invent a recipe." this was accomplished this past Saturday with my spicy cheese dip.

- "Learn to knit." Also accomplished Saturday when my cousin taught me during the game. I'm working on a pink scarf right now. I only have about 8 rows finished, and it's full of holes and mistakes, but you've gotta start somewhere, right??

- "Buy a new (to me) car." Still lovin' it!

- "Host a Party." This was also accomplished on Saturday. I should have probably made that goal "Host 20 parties" or something, because we have a lot of parties at our house! Especially during football season. Because Luke just can't help inviting a bunch of people over to share in the joy of victory or the agony of defeat :-P

And I think that's it for now. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I become everytime I get to cross off an item on that list! It would be really awesome to complete all of them! (Although I already messed one up..."Eat at the table once a week for the duration of the 1.001 days." I knew I was bound for failure on that one. But I'm not giving up...I'm still going to try to eat at the table as much as we can! I've only failed one week out of four, so that's not too bad! If I can eat at least one meal per week there 75% of the time, it will still be an improvement!)

Have a happy Wednesday! I'm sure I will be writing more about this awesome Joyce Meyer book as the weeks of Bible study go on :-)