Pacing and Peace

Last evening we had our 2nd Got Teens small group meeting for this new school year.

How I love leading this group of mom-friends.  Each and every woman is so special to me!  We learn from each other, edify each other, encourage and pray with one another.  It is good to do life with a group of close friends who know the Lord, want to go deeper in their walk with Him, and  want to be better parents in the process of raising tweens and teens.

This is a summary of what we discussed so that the ladies who had to miss group can catch up! If you are one of my regular followers/readers,  you are welcome to stay...linger a bit and maybe something might help you, or maybe you have some comments to add to the discussion.....are you ready?  Grab a nice steaming mug of coffee or herbal tea, kick off your shoes, and curl up....let's let the Lord's Words through our study, surround our souls.

• Wrapped up the study book Living Above Worry and Stress. The very last chapter was my favorite!
• We discussed the last 2 chapters so we can begin our new book, with a new member joining us, on October 20th.
• We discussed general news first: prayer needs, events coming up, etc.
• We discussed Chapters 11 & 12.  Although there were several questions to answer at the end of both chapters, we concentrated on just a select few.  

We read I Peter 1:6-9 and talked about what these Scriptures say in regards to facing trials that come our way.  Trials do not mean God doesn't love us anymore, that we aren't really Christians, or that we did something wrong!  Trials come to grow our character and to test our faith in Him.  I spoke about how I thought that God needs to be glorified in every situation (and J gave a testimony as to that very thing...to glorify Him NO MATTER WHAT....).  When we TRUST God in every situation (good or bad), He will be glorified.  This is an example to the unbeliever and to our children who are watching us.  Our character is strengthened when we face trials and trust the Lord.  We need to have patience in the process.

We concentrated for a bit on question 6 (pg 76) regarding James 1:23-25.  I taught that we really need to check our negative emotions before reacting to a stressful situation or to a trial.  I gave an example from a recent situation with Claire....that the way I reacted to the stress was in a way that was rather new for her but it was a more godly approach. Emotions are given to us by God.  Even the negative emotions. They are normal and they can be healthy IF we handle them in the correct manner.  We need to train our tweens/teens to actively check their emotions and to fill our hearts with HIM. In this way we are less likely to fall in to the trap of bad reactions to things.

We then switched gears a bit to get into question 8.  I shared how the only way we are going to be able to trust God, slow down in our lives and in our stress, and actively pursue peace, is if we are spending intimate time with the Lover of our soul.  We read John 8:31

"...if you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

H. shared that she reminds her self of "truth" when negative thoughts or emotions come along.  I agreed with this as well.  We need to keep the enemy (Satan) away by telling our selves the Biblical truths. The only way we are going to know the Truth, is if we are spending time in His Word, and time with Him.  We feed our families every day to be physically healthy.  We also need to feed our  minds/souls/hearts so we can be emotionally and spiritually healthy!

We talked about ways we can have some intimate time with Him and things we can do to encourage our tweens/teens to read the Word without it being drudgery or boring to them.  We all shared various ways we get into the Word with our children.

This discussion led nicely to the last chapter on Perfect Peace!  I shared how this topic (peace) is so important to me as a person, wife, mother, teacher....just throughout my whole life I have felt that peace is elusive BUT we can capture it by learning to acquire it.  It is a CHOICE.  Having a peaceful life doesn't mean you will never have problems.  It basically comes from the quiet confidence that comes from a peaceful heart which comes from Jesus.

We read John 16:33 and discussed #3 (pg 82), #5-6.

We wrapped up this study with the following points:

• we need to seek intimacy with Jesus. Every day.
• We can have the peace that passes all our human understanding (as based on Philippians 4:7) by having that quiet confidence that comes from Him..we can trust Him and in trusting Him we will have the faith to walk through anything, and in so doing, we will know peace.  We have this even though our human brains cannot begin to understand it.  Our hearts and minds will be guarded in Christ.  
• We need to allow peace to rule in our hearts. (Colossians 3:15).  It is actually a command!  Let's look at the first word:  LET.  That is an action word. We need to follow this command from God:

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts"

• We need to pursue peace....it is our goal.

We concluded by encouraging each other to have more intimate times in the Word, and to continue in going deeper with Him so we can train up our children to know Him and go deeper as well.

I handed out a treasure trinket:  a card stock with a turtle and a crown.

The turtle represents that we need to keep on.  We need to pursue the race set before us!  We need to be slow and steady in the race....to set the pace for our lives and our families.  The crown was to represent the Person (the King of Kings) who is reigning in our lives.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

I wrote the following Scripture on the card:

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me that day...."  2 Timothy 4:7-8a

Are you living above worry and stress??


  Are you pacing your self to find Peace??