Self-examination time ladies! The Lord has really been working in my heart about getting around all the"stuff" of ministry and focusing on Him alone. I learned many years ago to concentrate on building people and not programs, but when ministry grows, so does the workload! In the midst of all that business, it is often easy to lose your focus.

As a leader, your life must be centered in God alone, so this week I want to talk about some things we can do to keep that focus.

Stay in the Word! Sounds simple, and we all know this, but when you are busy teaching and leading, it is often very easy to skim through the Word while preparing and not really "chew" on it. Here are some tips to help your alone-time in the Word.

• Pray first. Ask God to open your eyes and to give you understanding before you read.
• Read through the Bible in a year. This is challenging but it is so worth the effort! The first time I made it all the way through, it took me a year and a half. I cannot tell you how much it helped me see the "big picture" of the Bible and how the scarlet thread of Christ is in it all. Just do it.
• Slow down... Ask questions while you read. Who is speaking, what are they saying, who are they talking to, why, where, when... Really take time to examine what you are reading.
• Study. Meditate on what you read. Take time to check cross references and look up word meanings. Really understand what the author is saying and how it relates to the rest of the book.
• Application. Take what you learn and make it personal. How can you use it in your life? Seriously, if you cannot think of how to live out what you learn, how can you expect the women you teach to?

Connect with God! Relationships are all about interaction, getting to know each other. Our relationship with God is no different. Spend time in the Word getting to know Who He Is, and spend time in prayer connecting with Him. Prayer is our power source. I do not believe that we have to spend a specific amount of time each day in prayer, but I know that a life without prayer is a life without the full power of God.

You can pray while you are in the shower, doing your hair, driving your car... You can be in a place with the Lord that you live and breath each moment with Him.

In relationship to our ministry... No matter how amazing our programs and events are, they cannot achieve their full potential without prayer.

Journal! This has turned out to be a really useful tool for me. I use a simple spiral notebook and scribble everything in it. Thoughts on passages, personal reflections, stories people tell me, poetry, jokes... Some days the entries are short and others fill several pages.

If you struggle with your mind jumping around during prayer, journaling is a good tool to help you stay focused.

The Bottom Line. In order for you to have a humble, servant's heart and truly serve women, you must have an active, life-transforming relationship with God. Stay in the Word and connect with God in prayer.

In Him... Robyne Beaubien, Editor

Purpose: To create conversations about thankfulness and contentment.

Key Verse: Philippians 4:11b "...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content."

Advertisement: We used a cute turkey graphic with two pumpkins as the center of all our advertising and a leafy border on the posters and invitations.

Decorations: Fall decorations. We covered all the tables with burlap tablecloths that we embellished with some discount fringe around the edges. We purchased metal turkeys and pumpkins from a craft store and spray painted them all copper. We placed a turkey and two of the pumpkins on each table as centerpieces and sprinkled leaves around them and all over the center of the tables.

We are blessed to have a gifted artist at our church and she created a life-size tree with branches that we put on one wall of the room.

Refreshments: Since we held our event in the evening, we served cold apple cider, iced tea, a selection of hot teas, hot cider and coffee along with a variety of maple, pumpkin and spice dessert bars.

Program: As the women arrived, they were handed a turkey shaped name tag and three colored paper leaves. They were asked to write one thing they were thankful for on one leaf and to save the other two for later in the evening.

We began with a welcome and prayer. We gave the ladies time to help themselves to refreshments and asked them to share with the women at their table what they had written on their leaf and why. We gave them 15 minutes to do this and then asked them to go tape their leaves to the tree.

We then had a woman who had recently lost her mother share her testimony. Her mother had been a beautiful, godly example and she shared how her mother had taught her to live her life with JOY: Jesus, Others and You. We then asked the women to write the first name of someone who had influenced their walk with the Lord and tape that to the tree. Again, we gave them time to share at their tables.

The last segment of the evening was a devotion from the pastor's wife on Thanksgiving Living. She encouraged the women to choose to praise God in every circumstance in their lives.

Some of her key points were:

• Effective prayer is not just asking for things... it is also giving thanks for things. "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
• Don't wait for some special blessing before giving thanks. "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father."
• We "offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name." God is blessed by our thankfulness... He loves it! Just like we enjoy hearing our kids say "thank you."

After she shared, we asked the women to take their final leaf and write a word or letter representing something challenging that they were going to praise God for.

We tried to fill the evening with a mix of conversation and thought provoking presentations. We left the tree on the wall and were excited to find that other people in church added their praise leaves to the display. All different shapes and sizes of leaves began to appear. When we took the tree down at the end of November, there were over 500 leaves on the tree. It was exciting to see the message of the evening spill over into our church body.

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What is the one thing you do as a leader or with your leadership team that has a significant spiritual impact on your ministry?

We know that is a BIG question and are looking forward to reading your answers and sharing them with others in an upcoming issue.

Send your comments and ideas to robyne@womensministry.net.

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