Friday SHINE...

Good Friday morning, SHINE girls! I am so proud of each of you! You are shining so bright, I can literally feel the warmth from the comfort of my couch this morning!


Just a little reminder...today we will have the drawing from our weekday give away! See post here...http://shinegirlsshine.blogspot.com/2012/01/weekday-shine-give-away.html 


I will draw a name sometime this afternoon. My kids cannot wait for this, so it will be sometime after they get home from school. 


I will announce the winner soon after. So, check the blog on the regular today! :-)


Also, a BIG surprise announced last night...our FIRST SHINE GIRL PARTY! See post below and rsvp if you can come!


Prayer requests are pouring in too, so please visit the prayer request post http://shinegirlsshine.blogspot.com/2012/01/prayer-requestspraises-week-2.html to review and lift your fellow SHINE girls up. 


If you do not check the blog regularly and are just receiving emails, you will miss a whole lot. We have a lot of commenting going on and so forth...you will be blessed by visiting throughout your day.


Today's reading can be found in 1 Samuel Ch. 10: 
http://www.youversion.com/bible/msg/1sam/10/1


My friend, Rebekah, will be guest blogging today. 

I am a visual person...so here ya go...this is me on the left and rebekah on the right. isn't she lovely? :-)

I could do an entire blog about my love for this friend. She has been a rock to me during this past year. 

In the Fall of this past year, I was in a very dark season...or as I like to call it, "The wilderness."

Rebekah was my go-to girl to lift me up out of that dark pit. She would pray for me, encourage me, and send me scriptures in the mail with her perfect penmanship. 

God has used this friend to be a bright light when I was fumbling around looking for a flashlight in the darkest of darkness.

Without further adieu, be blessed by her message today:

 If I were honest...

Honestly, when my friend, Jill's, idea for SHINE girls took shape, I wasn't feeling very shiny at all. Which is such a shame. I am a real believer in reflecting the love of Christ and my goal is to make a genuine effort to shine in my daily life. But, on December 28th, when this idea was first taking shape, I had just learned (within the hour) that my friend's death was imminent and I was overwhelmed. A Bible reading plan? Huh? I can't think about that today...

(Two weeks later and still stuck---) This past Wednesday night, at our couples' weekly small group meeting, a friend said,
"pray for me, my quiet time stinks. I am not making it a priority and I am missing it and missing out."

Ahem, really? (There is nothing quite like when Christians openly admit struggle, we should all do it more often, it's awesome.) Shazam, she was in a funk like me! Wooooeeewwwweeee... There was so much freedom and realness in her admission. I was so glad I was not the only one feeling funky about getting back in the Word and serious about my quiet time with God. And, all of the sudden, neutral wasn't OK anymore. 

 Since early December, my quiet time has consisted of sleeping through my quiet time window. Yep. Totally. Not exactly the kind of "quiet time" I was going for. But, I willingly made sleeping in a little longer my quiet time. I have kicked through Samuel a little, following the reading plan.  But, something hasn't been clicking for me. I'm stuck in neutral. Still praying and talking to God, but not digging into God's word. Meanwhile, reading my Bible is where I want to be.

It's the New Year, time for resolutions and discipline and I haven't been able to shake my greyness. And, it makes me feel so much better to admit that! So many times, I have felt compelled to pick up my Bible and be enlightened and spoken to, but I hesitate and get distracted. But, it's because I am not making time, in the quiet of my morning. (The time of day that works best for me.)

I am praying for the desire, routine and hunger for quiet time with Christ. I pray for all of our desire, routine and hunger for quiet time with Christ to manifest in reality. In the admission of a funk, I hope we can all hoist ourselves out of the pit and back into active, growing relationship with Christ, which happens so beautifully in God's word.

Like Jill mentioned in her last post, it's back to basics. Plain and simple. It's just about reading the Bible and we can watch God take care of the rest.

No matter where we are, we can start by starting.  Let's do it, let's get started, or restarted or jumpstarted or fresh started,

Rebekah