EDIT: The BIGGEST thing I forgot to include about today, was the fact that my husband, literally after the worst day, came home and straightened up our bedroom because he knew it was overwhelming my little head. Is he not literally the best?

Well tonight I felt like a running advertisement for IF, but we've been trying to decide what would be a good fit for our next girls Bible study. The guys have been going strong dissecting and discussing a different verse each week. While they go in depth and learn lots, sometimes its really more about building their bonds with one another. I think our ladies really have been aching for more than just hang out time.

We did that a couple of years ago, and because I am just not made to be a leader, our time together was good, but we just never really were able to open up easily with one another, nor did everyone give input. When you've only got 3-4 people regularly showing up, it's tough when people don't speak. So instead it turned into hang out time, instead of Bible time.

About 6 months later we tried again with a book study, but doing book studies always costs money. So that was tough because we're then asking our college students to always fork over money every 6 weeks.

So again about 4 months after the fact we had another study that required purchasing a book. It was really good, but we just can't keep that up.

So here we go at trying to implement an IF:Table...


It's simple. Super simple. Just a few women gathering together over a meal, and discussing questions pertaining to God and His Word. It's intended for discussion, and hopefully between Amber and I (some of the biggest introverts) we can get this discussion rolling between us ladies. We've definitely all grown closer, so I'm hoping this is not too difficult for us to do.

It's free. It's engaging. It doesn't require everyone to have read or done a study ahead of time. There's no right or wrong in this setting.

And then around April we are going to try and use an IF:Equip study on how to study your Bible that centers on Philippians, and see if we can implement it into a group study instead.

But we've got a few months. So I'm hopeful we can make this work!

Plus after I came away from this past weekend, it just felt right to begin doing something simple. Nothing complicated or expensive, just back to the basics.

The rest of the night with Amber, we talked about house hunting, jobs, and even watched one of the speakers from IF: Gathering, Jill Briscoe. Her story was much longer than I remember, but I found myself once again getting sucked into her incredible story telling. Hopefully I didn't bore Amber to death, but we ended up having some good discussion on it and another Pastor's message clip that a friend had shared.

Before we knew it, it was 10 pm, and the storm had finally let up outside long enough for Amber to head to her car without getting wet.

I sat inside watching some of my Timeless episode, until the lights began to flicker and then pitch black darkness surrounded me. Very quickly I felt a little wet nose touching my feet, and then the warmth of Bear's body on top of my legs. Pretty sure I have no idea where any of our flashlights live, so I had to use my phone instead. And in the dark, Bear and I just sat there, him shivering and me telling him it would be okay. The flashes of light flooding into the den, and the rumbling of thunder not far behind.

Stephen and Matt made it home from guy's group in the dark, but not long after the power was back on.

If you're reading, would you pray for Stephen. It's been a rough time at work, and this man who excels at everything he puts his mind to has had it difficult for 6 months plus now. He's been handed a bad deck, and there is literally no way to win this game. But instead he's got all the officials telling him he's still got to win, they can't end this game with out a win.

Terrible analogy, but you get me. Just need prayers.