Feb 23

Eph. 3:19
14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
I want to share with you something from our Wed morning Women’s Bible study from last week (Ash Wednesday). Now our ladies are all about visiting and sharing and encouraging in a great way. And, of course, that always includes food. I suggested that perhaps we might do something different for Ash Wednesday and not have food at our Bible Study and maybe meet in the sanctuary instead of the fellowship hall. They agreed. I was a little hesitant, thinking maybe I was just being selfish in not having to prepare a “real” lesson but I forged ahead anyway. We usually have a time of sharing prayer requests. This week I asked them to put their requests on slips of paper and place them in a basket. We still allowed the verbal sharing of things for the whole group before spending time singing Lenten hymns. After about 6 hymns, I passed out a few Ash Wednesday devotionals as well as some information about the imposition of ashes and then allowed the women about 40 minutes of quiet time. They could sit anywhere in the church, use the devotional sheets, use the pew Bibles, pray silently in their pew or kneel at the communion rail. This was like giving some of these young mothers gold. Their children were safely attended to in the nursery and they could finally have that quiet time that somehow always gets interrupted or pushed aside by the myriad of urgent things that always seems to fill the to do list.