Lessons from BSF

I know it seems a little odd to just pop back on here after so long. I have a "hey I've missed you video" scheduled but technical difficulties interfered. I'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a quick update of one major thing God is teaching me these days.

Are you dense? I know that's rude to ask, but I think I must be dense; and I'm wondering if I'm the only one. Lately everywhere I turn God seems to be trying to get my attention about the same thing. It's a recurring message that has bled into Dad's sermons on Sunday morning, our Wednesday night Bible Study, my personal quiet times and passages I'm studying for BSF (Bible Study Fellowship.) It will take me some time to unpack this, but for now let me just summarize. God wants me to distance myself from this world. He is offering stark and strong reminders of what a desolate yet seductive place I live in. He is asking me to turn from sins that I have become far too comfortable with. I think I look a little too at "home" here. I'm not 100% sure what He wants me to do about it, but I think He's getting ready to ask me to move into a new realm of faith and discipline.

Here's a passage from my BSF lesson this week. It's from the book of Isaiah 1:5-

"Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart is afflicted."

While studying this passage I felt the Spirit say some sobering things to me. I have become a part of a rebellious nation. I don't want to offer a dissertation on the state of America. God is displeased I think, but rather than having me shake my head or wag my finger, the Lord of Hosts is asking me to see my personal rebellion. I am responsible. America is made up of millions of evangelicals who like the American dream more than we like our Heavenly mandate. I have become complacent and lukewarm.

Like verse 5 says, my rebellion has perverted Truth. My head is injured. I allow sin to be overlooked or ignored. My heart is afflicted with hardness and excuses.

God is speaking to me. I am seeking desperately to listen. I only know the diagnosis right now. I am awaiting the prescription. I am on my way to getting well.

She Speaks Scholarship

Yeah, I thought that might get your attention. If you're dancing in your chair, then you've probably heard about the Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference. If you're a little confused but intrigued by the idea of winning something worth hundreds of dollars, go here. No really. Go there. Go there now. I'll wait.

Okay. Now if you're sold on She Speaks, or if you're even slightly curious check this out. Hey check this out even if you're neither. You may know someone who could be...

I am so sorry about the weird thing my earrings were doing, but I did that off the cuff, and so there was NO WAY I could do it twice.

And on another note. We are regular gals. We aren't perfect. We are flawed, and so I wanted you to know that we don't have it all figured out. But we aren't getting hammered daily regarding our interpretation of Scripture or how we apply it to our lives because that's something we take ridiculously seriously. We do our homework. We study. We prepare. We pursue excellence. We are prayed up, but it happens. It's probably not "regularly." The gals I'm on the team with are some amazing sisters, and that needs to be said. After watching the video I wanted to clarify that point. Oh, and I totally put on makeup at 11:28 pm because I'm just that insecure. I currently have on a tshirt with spit up on the shoulder. What can I say I needed to feel kind of put together. Please don't judge me.

Okay, here are the contest rules:

This contest is for women who have never attended She Speaks. And it is for women who would otherwise not be able to attend. If you can afford the conference-please do not enter to win a scholarship. Comments should briefly tell us what winning would mean to you in answering God's call to speak. We will be taking comments until midnight on Friday, April 23rd. A winner will be randomly chosen from all the comments and announced Monday, April 26th on the Proverbs 31 website. Here's the even better news. You can enter multiple times by leaving a comment on each of our blogs. And to make it easy there's a list on my sidebar of the other P31 gals in on the contest. You can also enter through our She Reads, She Seeks and Rad Revolution sites. Happy commenting.

Can't wait to hear from you!!!

Free to Be Me.

Hey guys. Yesterday's carnival was fantastic. You new friends are so fun. Thanks for taking the time to leave your "what I like about me" comments. I was astonished at how many Jesus-girls still struggle with being ourselves. "The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"-or wrinkled or dimply or freckled or saggy or flabby. Well you get the picture.

I hope we can endeavor together to give up on ourselves, and find Jesus-yes, more and more and more of Jesus.

The winner of the $30 gift card from Francesca's is Lisa Smith from lifeoflisasmith dot blogspot dot com. This sweet sister is beginning a fierce fight against cancer. Lisa, email me at wpcapps@me.com with your address, and I'll get the certificate out to you. Find you something special and girly. Know when you wear it that this little community of the blogosphere will be praying for you.

The Proverbs 31 Blog Carnival

Hey friends. It's a party, and it's a big one!!! Nearly the entire Proverbs 31 team is celebrating today with giveaways, encouragement and fellowship. We are group of women as diverse as you can imagine held together by a passion for women and for the Word of God. Because we are all different, if you take the time to look around our blogs you'll find us all celebrating various things-things we've overcome, things we've endured, things we've experienced, things we've learned, things we've been changed by.

Today, I am celebrating me. Oh, please, please, please keep reading. I'm not egomaniacal. I'm not supremely arrogant. I'm just a girl who is FINALLY good with just being me. I am FINALLY comfortable in my own skin.

Have you ever felt like a human being trapped in a chameleon's body? I spent years feeling like I didn't really know who I was or maybe who I wanted to be. There's not time to deconstruct the whole saga so let me paint you a picture. In high school I endured several extreme makeovers.

I spent middle school working my way through the store 5.7.9. At some point that deteriorated because it's 5.7.9 not 13.15.17. So, I went through a grunge phase. That was easy because I was not affluent and the idea is to try to look poor, but it was too dark for me. Then I tried the Abercrombie phase-not so easy on a tight budget. It didn't last long. Oh, and I had a muffin top when I was thirteen. Abercrombie is not made for girls with muffin tops. So then I tried pulling off an athletic look. I'm too round for that. It was fashion, and it was fiction. Athletic I am not. I eventually settled on preppy. It was the best fit-part lazy, part chic.

Each phase represented a new effort to feel good about me. I tried relentlessly to figure out who I was. I knew God had made me me. I knew deep in my soul that I was uniquely Whitney, I just didn't know what that would look like. Please know, this wasn't just about fashion. It wasn't just about materialism. It was about a young girl wanting to feel good about who and how God had made her.

Eventually a young woman gave up. I just got tired. I stopped wanting to figure it out. I decided to just enjoy being me-today. Thinking about my public persona was too exhausting, and really too selfish. I stopped trying to find myself, and devoted myself to finding God.

Then unremarkably it happened. I just became myself. And now at 31, I kind of like just enjoying God. Unexplainably, as a result I enjoy me. I am the most transparent person you will likely ever meet. I am ridiculously flawed. I make the same stupid mistakes. My prayers aren't, but could easily be scripted. I'm on my face about the same sins over. and over. and over. I'm not proud of it, but I am me. And I am growing. I'm not so worried about how God wants me to appear as much as who God wants me to be. It's incredibly freeing.

So today I'm celebrating the journey of finding myself. It's a journey that I completed when I gave up. I gave up on myself. I'm a quitter, and I like it.

Now, I am a girl who still loves fashion, and I have found my "me" store. If you don't have a Francesca's Collections near you, find one. If you can't find one go online and enjoy a little fashion heaven on a mama's budget. I can't pull off everything on the site. But ya'll part of enjoying me is knowing I have one dimple in the right place, and a host of others in the wrong places. I have unruly eyebrows. I have enormous hips and tiny, um, let's just say that A-line is my friend. But I have a nice neck and really great earlobes. Play to your strengths girls. I love me some big earrings, a cute necklace and a nice tunic.

So leave me a comment about what you like about you. I'll pick a winner and send you a $30 gift card from my favorite little fashion joint.

Now go celebrate with some of the best gals in the world: (You'll find their links on my sidebar, so click away. They've got good stuff for you, and I don't mean the give-aways!!)

Wendy Blight www.WendyBlight.com Wendy is giving away a copy of the One Year Chronological Bible and her book Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: The Transforming Power of God's Story.

Shari Braendel www.ShariBraendel.blogspot.com Shari is givng away 3 beautiful jewelry pieces to begin a spring wardrobe with! One for a Glamour Girl, one for a Movie Star and one for a Rock Star!

Micca Campbell www.miccacampbell.com Micca is giving away her book An Untroubled Heart, and a cute clutch purse for those fun summer evenings!

Melanie Chitwood www.melaniechitwood.com/ Melanie is giving away One marriage conference call (see her blog for details) and her new book What a Wife Needs from Her Husband.

Lynn Cowell www.LynnCowell.com Lynn is giving away a prize for mom and a prize for a teen girl in her life – the 3 book series B.A.B.E. series by Andrea Stephens (Beautiful, Accepted, Blessed, Eternally Significant) for the teen and for Mom a $10 gift card to Starbucks along with Lynn’s CD “Building a Bridge to Your Child’s Heart”.

Karen Ehman www.KarenEhman.com Karen is giving away a Winter White Basket centered on Psalm 51:7 "Wash me and I will be whiter than snow" that includes Skin Milk body wash, a white loofah, Winter White Citrus Bath & Body Works products, white lily linen and room sprays, white hot cocoa, a white mug and white-chocolate macadamia nut cookies. Along with it, a copy of her book on celebrations entitled Homespun Memories for the Heart: More Than 200 Ideas to Make Unforgettable Moments.

Suzie Eller www.SuzieEller.com Suzie is giving away a webcam!

Zoe Elmore www.zoeelmore@blogspot.com Zoe is giving away a journal, a copy of My Heart's Cry by Anne Graham Lotz and a piece of jewelry Zoe style!

Charlene Kidd www.CharleneKidd.blogspot.com Charlene is giving away a $20.00 Starbucks Gift Card and a copy of Karen Ehman’s book: A Life That Says Welcome, Simple Ways to Open Your Heart and Home to Others.

Tracie Miles www.TracieMiles.com Tracie is giving away her CD "Overcoming Stress with Extraordinary Faith" and a Soulmates Slipper with Christian Notepad and Pen.

Rachel Olsen www.RachelOlsen.com Rachel is giving away Bread for Life": a hardback copy of The Daily Message: Through the Bible in One Year by Eugene Peterson (which you can read this along with her this year) and the Williams-Sonoma Muffins cookbook.

Wendy Pope www.wendypope.org Wendy is giving away a copy of her book Out of the Mouths of Babes and her CD Yes, No, and Maybe of a Balanced Life

Luann Prater www.LuannPrater.com & www.EncouragementCafe.com Luann is giving away an Encouragement Cafe mug and t-shirt for both sites!

LeAnn Rice www.LeAnnRice.com LeAnn is giving away a copy of her cookbook Sharing Grace: Recipes- Family Traditions-Gift ideas and a Starbucks gift card.

Susanne Scheppmann www.susannescheppmann.blogspot.com Susanne is giving away her Birds in My Mustard Tree Bible Study with an I-tunes gift card.

Renee Swope www.ReneeSwope.com Renee is giving away Lysa TerKeurst’s Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl DVD Set and her CD message, Living Beyond the Shadow of Doubt on DVD.

Lysa TerKeurst www.LysaTerKeurst.com Lysa’s give away is a Mom's Book Club gift pack including 4 copies of Lysa's book, Am I Messing Up My Kids?and a 30-minute Q&A conference call with Lysa.

Van Walton www.vanwalton.blogspot.com Van is giving away her DVD for children - From the Pound to the Palace

Glynnis Whitwer www.GlynnisWhitwer.com Glynnis is giving away her book work@home: A Practical Guide for Woman Who Want to Work from Home and a French Country Wire Silverware Basket

She Reads www.shereads.org She Reads is giving away two novels, Watch Over Me by Christa Parrish and Screen Play by Chris Coppernoll, and chocolate, courtesy of the authors. They will tell the story of how their writing brought them together - a love story, quite literally, fit for a novel!

RadRevolution www.RadRevolution.org Our ministry to teen girls is giving away a copy of Do the Hard Thing along with a RadRev t-shirt! /div>

Work It Out Wednesday-2.10.10

Okay so this just barely counts as Work it Out Wednesday. My apologies. No real reason. No life shattering drama, just a rough day in the life of this Mom. My world isn't so different from yours. It's not more difficult. It's not busier. It's just life, and life today was hard.

I was not a great Mom today, and it was one of those tough days where I didn't care-at the time. Now, while my sweet boys quietly sleep, I feel the pangs of guilt, the sting of my tone, the hope of short memories. So I am sorry for them and to you. But there it is.

So for Work it Out Wednesday, let me just ask you this. Are you friends with those in your own home? Are you friends with your family?

Today I would have to say "no".

I have a bad habit of being too real with the sweet people who share my immediate space. On more than one occasion my beloved has said, "you would never talk to somebody at church this way." He is right. I am not confrontational. I am regretfully, perpetually happy. I am not easily angered. I don't get my feelings hurt very often. I love my friends, and I want them to love me.

At home, I am different. Maybe more real, but certainly less long-suffering.

So for today, and tomorrow let's befriend our family. Extend the grace we would to our best friend. Hold our tongues because we would never say those words to a friend. Soften our tone. Drop what we are doing.

Come back Friday and let us know how it goes. Oh, and we'll pick back up with David and Jonathan next week.