God has placed something on my heart and I am super excited about it.  For a couple of weeks I felt the desire to start a bible study in my home with ladies in my community.  A time to chat, drink coffee, get to know each other and study God’s Word.

I then started to think of who I could invite and asked God to place ladies on my heart.  As I thought of ladies I began to realize that they were stay at home moms, work from home moms, and work outside of the home moms.  They were married, single, divorced and in different seasons of life.

As women we are busy.  We have demands coming from all directions and fitting in a bible study sometimes isn’t feasible.  I know because I’ve been there.  I’ve had to opt out of bible studies because I didn’t have childcare or it was in the evening during sports practices.

So how could I accommodate to women in all walks of life?

I thought about my blog and immediately felt this was the way.  I started blogging again for fun.  I love to write.  It’s therapeutic for me.  But how amazing would it be to be able to encourage women through my blog?

I began to think about my dad.  He loved to read my blog posts and he loved to hear me speak at church.  He even asked me to speak to his congregation one year while him and my mom were out-of-town.  I still can’t believe he trusted me that much.  I remember him telling me one day that he saw me on a stage speaking to an auditorium full of women.  I remember thinking…nah I don’t think that will ever happen.

But lately those words have been on repeat in my heart.

Could it be true?  Is that what you have for me Lord?

Then the negative thoughts began.  I am not perfect.  I drink wine.  I listen to gangster rap.  I am known to cuss during a heated discussion or when I can’t power clean the weight on my bar.  And during double unders because they are the devil.

I’ve messed up.  I’ve done bad things.  I grieved my dad’s death by giving up on God and quit church.  What in the world could I offer?

But lately God has taught me a lot.  It started off with Jen Hatmaker’s book, Of Mess and Moxie.  In her book she talks about learning to embrace the fasting and the feast.

“God gave humanity many healing tools, and they exist for beyond circumstances.  Some are traditionally spiritual:  prayer, communion, sanctuary, Scripture… But so many others are tactile, physical, of soil and earth, flesh and blood.  Some are covert operators of grace, unlikely sources of joy, like a beautiful piece of art, a song, a perfectly told story around a dinner table, a pool party with friends and margaritas.  These things also count, they matter, they are to be consumed and enjoyed with gusto, despite suffering and even in the midst of suffering.

God gives us both Good News and good times, and neither cancels out the other.  What a wonderful world, what a wonderful life, what a wonderful God.” -Jen Hatmaker

Y’all.  God gave us life abundantly.  He gave us the Good News but He also gives us good times.  This hit home.

I love the Lord with all my heart.  He has given me life and makes my world go round.  Even on the days when I want to give up on Him, I know that He will never give up on me.  I enjoy life.  I love hard.  I love to encourage women and empower them to be the person that God made them to be.  But I’m not perfect that’s for sure.

I understand that many won’t agree with me, but I just felt the need to be real because being fake is not cool.  I quit that a long time ago.  But even though we may not agree we can still be friends because I respect the way you feel.  My walk with Jesus will look completely different to yours.  That doesn’t mean we are doing “it” wrong because as far as I’m concerned we are told to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbor like ourself.  Those are the two greatest commandments.

Love God.  Love Others.

So it brings me to this:

I want to lead a virtual bible study.  I want to create a community with women of all different walks of life.  A community where we love, respect, encourage and empower.  A safe place because life is hard and we all need some girlfriends that will lift us up and pray for us.

How will this work?  I am still trying to figure out the details.  I am a list girl, you know this, so I will have all the details for you in the next couple of days.  But for now, go ahead and get a copy of Church of the Small Things Study Guide.  You can buy the book as well, it’s good!  But you don’t need to because the study guide will be what we use.  If you want to participate send me your email and I will send you an invitation letter. In this letter you will get a link to buy the book with a coupon code.  I think it ends up being less than $10! You will also have access to the companion videos available online for free! And the best part? You can do it all on your time.

We will begin on October 22nd and will go for six weeks.

In this book the author, Melanie Shankle, reminds us that God does extraordinary things in our most mundane moments of faithfulness.  What if it’s the LITTLE things that make a BIG difference? (Church of Small things)

The little things can be cooking dinner, washing dishes, laundry, carpool, or being nice to a co-worker.  In life, we want to focus on the big accomplishments and we live for those moments.  But what about those small things?

Oh girls, this is so true.  For years I focused on the BIG things.  I didn’t enjoy the everyday stuff and now I wish so badly that I would have.  A simple hug, a smile, a kind gesture.  Laundry, dishes, carpool.  We don’t realize how big those little things truly are.

I am so excited to get started!  And I can’t wait for you to join me.

Here’s how it will work:

I will kick off each week with a video or post and then we will be able to chat throughout the week.  At the end of each week, we will “talk” through a group or maybe on the blog (still trying to figure out the details) about what we learned throughout the week.  It will be a good way to virtually get to know each other.

The reviews on this study are great and I am so excited to dig in.  If you would like to join me, send me an email to myeterno@gmail.com. I’ll send you the invite letter with all of the information.

I hope to connect with you all soon!

-Maggie