Pure Heart

"Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God."

After taking a holiday break, The God's Girls gathered again to kick off our new series, "Body Parts."

We will be going through various body parts and discussing what the Bible has to say about them and how we, as girls who belong to God, are to use our mouths, eyes, hands, feet... to please God.

We kicked off with the heart, it being Valentine's week and all!

The heart is talked about so much in the Bible.

It is the place where we invite Jesus to come in and take over our life.

Why not the brain?

The brain seems to be mission control for the body, the hub of all communication.  

Why don't we ask Jesus into our brains to take over our life?

In Matthew 15 Jesus tells us that out of the heart comes our words and our thoughts.

What?  Doesn't our mouth speak and our minds think?

There is something about the heart that is the center of all of us.

The heart directly influences the mouth.

The heart guides the mind.

What we value most is where we place our hearts.

The heart determines how we live.

And Jesus told us that those who have a pure heart, will see God!

I want to see God!

 If your heart is clean, pure, then everything else in you will be pure too.

Your thoughts, your words, your actions, your desires.

They all come out of your heart.

When our thoughts are coming from a pure heart,

 they are not distracted and they are focused on God and we see Him all around us.

When our words are coming from a pure heart, 

they are not harsh or rude, but a blessing and a gift that allow others to see God.

When our actions are coming from a pure heart, 

we are not acting for our own fame and glory, 

but for the benefit of others and the glory of God and we see Him.

And when our desires are coming from a pure heart,

 we are selfless and seek to please God through doing His will, 

which is always where we see Him.

The God's Girls made bookmarks.

Using pencil erasers dipped in paint to decorate them.

At the bottom of the bookmark we punched a small heart out.

When I laminated the bookmarks, the heart hole was covered by the plastic,

 making a window of a pure heart.

Truly our heart is a window into who we are.

If our heart is cluttered, dirty, or covered up, no one really sees us.

But when our heart is pure, people can clearly see into who we are,

and because we are all made in the image of God,

they will see God.

Search me God and know my heart.

Investigate my life, find out everything about me;

Cross-examine and test me,

get a clear picture of what I'm about;

see for your self whether I've done anything wrong - 

then guide me on the road of eternal life.

Ps. 139 MSG

The Recipe For A God's Girl

What are the ingredients that make up a Girl who belongs to God?

I spent the past 4 months discussing this question with my group of 4th grade girls - The God's Girls.

We gather a few times a month to challenge and equip these little girls to be who God has created them to be and to live differently as they step out bearing the title "God's Girl."

This past session was all about recipes - 

we discussed how recipes are guides that give directions to obtain a desired result,

we talked about the ingredients we must acquire to make us into girls more like Jesus,

and we made a few recipes in the kitchen for fun!

We started this series by decorating our own recipe boxes that would hold our prayer requests, notes, memory verses, and actual recipes that we would make during our time together.

The girls were over the moon!

I loved seeing their creativity and the sweet things they wanted written on their boxes.

***

This gathering of little girls has been a huge challenge and blessing in my life.

I know how much I greatly benefited from discipleship groups 

when I was in jr. high and high school.

But why wait until the girls are teenagers?

Why not start them early growing in their faith, relationships and accountability with other girls?

Female relationships are a treasure that the enemy is threatened by because he knows there is power when women, both young and old, come together in Jesus' name!

An area that God is calling me to be Brave in 2016 is with this ministry.

I'm scared.

I'm not sure how exactly to move forward with what God has put on my heart.

But I'm going to be Brave!

I hope to have more posts about God's Girls throughout this year!

LOVE

Last night marked a year.

For one year now, 5 little girls have gathered in my dining room twice a month to sip lemonade from tea cups, eat mini pizzas and treats, and talk about what it really means to be one of God's Girls!

They are precious.

 

I want my girls to know from a young age that true friends are ones who come around you to listen to you and pray for you.  True friends spur you on towards LOVE and good deeds, they don't walk down the path of gossip with you and point you to the world.

True friends look differently, go to different schools, wear different clothes than you,

but their hearts look much the same.

We've been working through the Fruit of the Spirit, taking our time to talk about each aspect of the Holy Spirit Fruit that shows in our lives as we allow Him to dwell in us.

Of course I saved LOVE for our February gathering!

Last year we talked about God's great love for us, that we are His Masterpieces!

But the love we talked about last night was different.

Last night we talked about our responsibility to love others.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

 

3 big parts in these verses.

First the "what"

LOVE one another

Second the "how"

As I have loved you.

Lastly, the "why"

So that by your love everyone will know that you are my disciples.

 

We sipped cherry milkshakes (departing from our traditional lemonade because pink milkshakes with heart straws looked just too cute!) and ate mini pizzas while we discussed this verse at great length.

 

We are commanded to love. 

Commanded!

Have you ever thought of that?

It's a command without option.  Without caveat.  Without exception. Without excuse.

LOVE one another. Period.

 

We are commanded to love in the way God loves us.

Around the table we shared how God loves

"He cares for us."

"He puts our best first."

Selfless

"He gave us Jesus to die for us."

Sacrifice

"God loves everyone, even those that hate Him."

Unconditional

 

When we love in this way, the same way that God loves us and in the way Jesus exemplified in his earthly life, people stop and take notice.  This kind of love is radically different than the love the world shows.

It seems that our world is lost in the love of self.  That kind of love only points inward. 

It's a dead end. 

But the unconditional, selfless love of God points out.

It points up.

 

Milkshakes and pizzas gave way to decorating heart sugar cookies as we talked some more.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."

Hebrews 10:24

 

How can we encourage each other to love?

One girl shared about a mean girl at school.  Another girl nodded, "yea, she's really mean."

"It would be easy for the two of you to walk away from her and talk about how mean she is.  You could gossip about her and turn others away from her," I started.

"But what if together you pray for her?"

We are commanded to LOVE, and we are asked to consider how we can encourage each other to keep this very difficult command.

 

We concluded our time praying for one another, and praying for the mean girl.

 

Masterpiece

Yesterday we had our last God's Girls gathering before Summer break.

I've really had a wonderful time with these precious little ladies for the past 4 month.

They are each special and unique.

They are sweet and kind and innocent.

I wanted to send them off for the Summer with the knowledge that they are God's Masterpiece.

Each one of them is a work of art!

I got some little wooden frames and when they arrived, they painted their frames.

They didn't know what they were for.

Their only guideline was that there had to be gold on their frame.

Then we gathered at the table with our tea cups and princess plates for mini pizzas, 

tiny cupcakes and a discussion.

I found the most amazing museum collection books at the Goodwill Bookstore and couldn't pass them up!

For this occasion, I chose the Vatican Museum art to start our conversation about Masterpieces.

We looked at works of art by Michelangelo, Botticelli and Raphael.

I asked them questions about the paintings and why they are considered Masterpieces.

Their responses were perfect!

"They took a long time to paint. 

They are some one's best work.

They are perfected.

They are unique.

They took a lot of hard work."

Then we talked about another artist and creator - God.

We looked in the Bible to find verses that described God's works of art and found that his most precious work of art, his Masterpiece, is us!

I looked at each girl in the eyes, called them by name, 

and told them individually that they are God's Masterpiece.

I had a stack of photos that I had taken of the group over the past 4 months

 and asked them each to choose one for their frame.

On the back of their frame I put Psalm 8 which talks about God's amazing creation and art work, the heavens, the moons and stars, and with all of that, he still has us in the forefront of his mind at all times.

Out of all the incredible things God has made, we are his most valued Masterpiece.

Every Masterpiece is framed in gold in beautiful museums,

that is why I made sure they all added gold to their frames!

Do you know that you are God's Masterpiece?

You are!

Mother Daughter

On Saturday I got to spend the whole day with my little ladies

on a special Mother Daughter date.

My mom and I have been going on what we call "Mother Daughter" for quite some time!

Here's my mom and I on our Santa Barbara Mother Daughter when I was pregnant with my daughters!

 This is our Mother Daughter crew, doing what we love most!

Talking late in jammies, comfy socks and pizza!

I've known these women since I was 3 years old and they have been my mothers and my sisters!

Such special relationships and memories together!

I've been so excited to do more special things with my daughters to pass the Mother Daughter tradition down to my little loves!  We're not on our weekend get-aways quite yet!  But a whole day together, alone and then with some other mothers and daughters, was just the right start!

We started the day with manis and pedis!

 

 Then we met up with our God's Girls and their moms for tea.

After tea we headed to the theater to see the Sea Princess ballet.

What a special day with my little girls and their amazing friends and moms.

I feel so blessed to have 2 daughters.

I pray that we will have the close relationship that I have with my mom because there is 

something really special about a Mother Daughter relationship!

Clothe Yourself with Kindness

In our God's Girls group, we've been talking about the different characteristics that a girl who belongs to God should exemplify.  

We recently discussed Kindness.

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Colossians 3:12

In the spirit of "clothing" ourselves in these characteristics, we made paper dolls!
The girls each cut out a girls and then I put out tons of scrapbook papers and let them go nuts with their imaginations to clothe their girls!

Look at the shoes and hats!!!
These girls should be designers!

Each piece of clothing was assigned a characteristic:
Compassion was over our legs - a skirt, shorts or pants - because we pictured bending down to care for a child and get on their level to have compassion on them.
Kindness was over our heart - a shirt or blouse - because we felt that true kindness had to come from our hearts.
Humility was over our heads - a hat - because humility is thinking of yourself in a right way.
Gentleness was something soft - a purse or gloves - because to be gentle we must be soft in our words and actions
Patience was over our feet - shoes - because we can run out ahead, but we should walk patiently.

These amazing little girls created lovely paper dolls that I pray will remind them of all the beautiful characteristics God wants them to clothe themselves with everyday!

God's Girls

Last night 5 sweet girls were at our house for our first 

God's Girls gathering.

The girls are 7-8 years old.

 They go to different schools.

Some have blond hair.

Some have brown hair.

But they all love Jesus.

We had some treats.

We sipped lemonade from my favorite tea cups.

And we talked about what our twice a month gatherings will look like.

The Moms' desire is to start our little girls young in Godly community.

These little girls are going to need love, support, encouragement and friendship as they grow and we want to provide that for them now, so when they need it, it's already in place!

The girls got journals and pens so that they can write down prayer requests for one another 

and notes on what we discuss.  

We decided that the heart of our time together will be discussing what it means to be God's Girls. 

What does it mean to belong to God?

How should we dress as one of God's Girls?

How should we talk, treat others, serve others, view ourselves...

We will pray together.

And then we will play together!

It was a special evening and I can't wait to see how these little lives grow together over the years.