I've been in a funk.
Which a friend of mine thinks is funny. If she texts me about it long enough she knows I'll end up calling myself "funky" which makes her lol.
But all of us girls know how unfun a funk really is. I recently spent months {MONTHS} teaching my Wednesday morning Bible Study ladies about our God-given temperaments and how we can and should submit them to Jesus. Months on how we should embrace our God-given strengths and kick our sin-filled weakness to the curb. And then my sensitive little melancholy self got kinda discouraged and just let everything I'd both learned and taught slip away forgotten.
I accidentally shared some of my crazy funk with a friend this week. She encouraged me, we went on with our planning, and a few hours later I got a text. It included a list of things I've taught her and then a big ole' "& girl" at which point she shared a sweet and personal lesson God has taught her that I really needed to hear.
Do you call your friends Girl? We do around here. There is a lot of "Hey Girl!" and "Bye Sweet Girlies!" going on in my social world. But this friend usually greets me with "Hi Pretty Lady!" which made this & Girl really catch my interest...and then smile that she used the &. I love her.
This is just a short post to challenge you in one thing.
Sometimes your teacher needs the lesson.
Many of you reading are already attached to a Bible Study. You have a Sunday School teacher or a small group leader or a mentor or a minister's wife that you love. One that you know struggles sometimes, but is always able to shake it off and hear your issues and questions and send you off feeling encouraged as if you were just able to take a big deep breath. If you have someone like that in your life you are blessed. It's exactly the way believing life is supposed to be (Titus 2). But keep in mind, your teachers are people who get discouraged and probably are pros at hiding it. They don't need bossy correction, they need sincere encouragement. So when your teacher gives you an honest look at her struggle follow my friend's three-part little formula:
Specifically repeat back to her what you've learned from her.
Add a really great affectionate & Girl... (or whatever you say where you live)
Follow up with what God has taught you as you've sought after Him all on your own. Because there is nothing as encouraging to a mentor/teacher than seeing one of their students or spiritual daughters digging out and walking in Truth all on her own.
"It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."
3 John 3-4 NIV
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