Young Moms part 2

Last month all of us in Bible study received this awesome invitation from Sarah He.

The ninth of May, save the date!

It's Moms' Night Out, the kids can wait!

  After a day of scrubbing the floor,

  When hubby gets home, you walk out the door!

    We'll carpool to Wichita, eat at Doc Greens,

    When our tummys are full, hit the movie scene.

The premier of "Moms' Night Out" we'll see,

The life of several moms told in Christian comedy.

   Be ready to relax, chat, eat, drink and unwind,

   The fun times and laughter won't be hard to find!

We took 2 van loads from Newton, and several met us in Wichita since they live close by or were shopping for the day.

1st stop - Doc Greens!  I had a Thai wrap.  Oh my!!!  So very good!

Sarah W and Rachel didn't make it.  They were too busy shopping for Rachel's birthday gifts!  And Beth was going to meet us at the theatre. And Kendall at Starbucks.

On to the Warren to watch this amazing film called "Mom's Night Out!"

We took up one whole row!

We all liked the movie!  I think we have ALL been stress-paralyzed before with children.

Oh my, I remember quite well as a young mom needing to get away!  Being with other friends helped so much!  We had play dates (we didn't call it that in the 80's) or being in a babysitting co-op so we could have a couple hours to our selves.

Being a mom can be overwhelming at times.  I remember feeling hopeless even, on occasion.  Tired.  Depressed.



But there is such JOY in being a mom too!!  Really!  There is nothing so sweet as getting a hug and kiss from your children (or in my case, grandchildren!).  I wouldn't trade being a mom for anything!  Hang in there girls!!

After the movie, we headed to -

Kendall had just finished a photobooth session and joined us.  Here is a pic of her and her husband.

If you want to rent them sometime for a party, you should contact them!

thewichitaphotoboothcompany.com

Baby Hannah and Baby Jackson's first time at Starbucks!  The babies got passed around.

"Lord, You are my strength and my song.  You ARE my salvation!  

I come to You, because You said 'Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest...learn from Me and you will find rest for your souls.'

Lord, I seek Your strength, Your joy and Your rest.  

Thank You for emotional rest.  You give me Your peace. 

 You know all about me, because You formed me in my mother's womb.    

Thank You for friends.  For laughter.

  For a Mom's night out!!"

Young Mom's

My friend Sarah and I began leading a young mom's Bible study many years ago.  At first, it was with the young leaders' wives of the small groups we had at church, but it has grown.

Here we are wearing "matchy, matchy".

(Sarah, I do believe we've aged.)

Sarah is such a dear friend!  Sarah moved next door to us many years ago and what a friend she became!!  Love praying with her!

This is our group this year, minus a couple who were missing that day. 

Heidi (who is expecting!!)

                                     Julie (who has moved away now)

Each week we would get together at church and would begin the morning with yummy food.  We all took turns bringing the breakfast.  And we'd share recipes of course!

Usually there was an opening question, like "Where were you on Sept. 11" (since we met that day), or "What was your nickname when you were growing up" (when we talked about Paul's name being changed from Saul).

We shared God moments -
     something He had done that week,
     something you read in your devotions that blessed you
     or an answer to prayer maybe.

We all took turns telling the story of our lives.  We would pass around photos of our growing up years and tell about our family, our moves, how we met Christ and what He is doing in us.

This year we studied "Galatians" by Tim Keller.
.                                                  

In Galatians, there were people who were saying that Jesus was critical and crucial to getting saved, of course, but that faith in Him alone was not enough to grow you into full acceptance with God.  That you needed to adopt a full range of Mosaic ceremonial and cultural customs. They were telling the young believers that performance mattered in order to be acceptable to God!  So Paul was pretty upset.

Salvation is God's doing.  His action.  His work.  There is nothing in who we are that saves us.  We are too sinful to contribute to our salvation.

The Gospel is about God's grace in sending His Son and in calling us to faith in Him.  We are saved by belief in Jesus' work on the cross - nothing else.  If we were able to earn it, what was the point of the cross.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

What a blessed year this has been -
               to see God at work in each of our lives.

      We've had the joys of new babies, the heart break of a friend's birth of a very preemie baby that we prayed home (the doctors said he would not make it).

                   We prayed for Sydney, Amanda's niece who had leukemia and had bone marrow transplant and is doing well at this time.  
                                         
                We've been praying for health for one of our mom's
                                                and also for the health of another yet unborn baby.
               We prayed that one of our girls would be able to get pregnant and she did.

We prayed for our husbands
                                     and our children.  Being a mom is such a challenge!

 It has just been incredible to watch God at work through the good times and the hard times!  He's working on us, but how wonderful that we don't have to strive for perfection in order to be accepted.

He loves us.  Period.