You go God!

Last night was the third week of the "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" bible study and God just showed off like you wouldn't believe!! Go God!

First, we've had so many new women come. I believe we are up to almost sixty! Not that we are about "numbers" but for a summer bible study, this is awesome!

The Podcast should be up later on this evening. Kris was having some trouble with it last night and he was tired, so I didn't make him stay up until the wee hours of the morning working on it!

So if you are interested in listening check back either tonight or in the morning.

My nerves are finally settling down and I'm being able to enjoy myself a little more. Or maybe the ladies are getting more used to me and their eyes aren't looking at me like deer in head lights anymore......either way, it's getting better! =)

Because there have been so many new women each week I haven't even gotten an e-mail out to them, so most of them don't know about this little bloggie where they can come and share their thoughts.

I'm learning....I'm not given the gift of "administration".

AT ALL.

I love how the body of Christ works because the Lord will continually send someone who does have this gift in my life. So next, week, hopefully I'll be able to get an e-mail out! God has sent someone along my side this entire journey who "knows" what they are doing when it comes to "administrative stuff". You know who you are, THANK YOU, and I LOVE you!

There were some tough questions last night.

There were more tears shed last night.

There were more women taking the first step towards their King to begin this beautiful dance of their lives.

It's a precious room that is always filled with smiles at the end of the night. God is working!!

My heart sank last night as one woman asked me if we were in week 5! And I thought, "OH NO, I hope not."(I was having a bit of a blond moment DUH, I totally knew what week we are on!)

But, I can see it's going to be very hard to end this study. We still have half-way to go.....but I'm already getting sad.

These ladies are just so near and dear to me. They are SO beautiful too!! I mean, I could not have a prettier crowd to be looking at each week!

We talked a little bit about our insecurities. On one of the pages of our books it asked us to write down somethings that were beautiful about ourselves, like compliments we have received.

I asked the women to raise their hands if anyone had more than five things written down.

Not one woman raised her hand.

The next question was to write down things we would love to change about ourselves. I then asked them to raise their hands if they had at least five.

Almost every hand was raised. Mine included. I had, eight.

The next question was hard, the book asked us to journal our thoughts on this. Mine were MANY. I kept asking God, "How am I supposed to lead this bible study when my list is so long?"

And through many tears, God spoke to me and this is what He said,

"Nicki, the call to obedience to ME, has to outweigh your insecurities. There has to come a point where your desire to my love, my affection, my gifts to you, will have to outweigh all these other whispers you hear each day."

You see, the world will always tell us that we need just one more beauty product. Or one more new cream for our hips. Or one more "new" haircut......to feel beautiful.

But God, doesn't say that, at all. In fact in Ecclesiastes 3:11 He says, "In it's time, He makes all things beautiful."

In our time of drawing closer to God, being filled up with him and dancing the incredible dance of our lives, we will be beautiful! Not matter what the outside looks like!

Of course, there are always things we can do to help us "feel" better. And I am all about those types of things! We'll talk more about that later.

But when we are filled up with HIM, combined with these other "things" to help us feel better.....wow! What a package that will be!!!

I think you'll enjoy the podcast. It was a good night! Because God is good, and HE showed off and HE touched hearts.

Have a beautiful day. =)