And so it ends…

I missed the next two weeks of Apple Seeds while ‘replacing mom’ (see previous posts) in BC.  While I was away Miriam Mast filled in. 

 

The second week they talked about the gospel.  A beautiful, godly woman knows that she is a sinner deserving to be separated from the pefect and holy God but she also knows that through Jesus she can know God. 

The third week they talked about inner and outer beauty.  Each girl had a paper with her name on it on which each of the other girls wrote something they liked about that girl.  We are often unaware of the things people are noticing and appreciating so it is good to go through an exercise like this to encourage each other.  They then looked at beautiful women of the Bible.

 

The fourth week I was back.  We talked about getting to know God better.  How do we do that?  Reading the Bible (we went through a practice, reading different different verses and writing down what they teach us about God), prayer (which includes singing) and from older Christians (parents, older students, reading biographies…).  One thing I shared with them which I’m finding really helpful in my own life is to write two sentences in response to reading Scripture, one beginning with ‘God is’ and the other with ‘I am".

 

The fifth week we talked about being creative with the gifts God has given us.  God has given us all kinds of gifts, some creative in themselves (art, music) and some more boring (organization, academic ability).  But because we are created in the image of a creative God we are called to be creative with our gifts as well.  We are to use whatever He has given us to serve each other and show the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him.

 

The last week we talked about boundaries and goals.  Although these girls are only 8-12 it is not too many years before they will be young women.  If they want to become beautiful godly women they will need to decide now what is going to be acceptable and what will not.  We specifically focused on sexual boundaries.  With the age of those being sexually active dropping all the time it’s important to bring this up now, to let them now that they need to decide whether they will save themselves for their husbands now. 

 

It was a great six weeks. I trust that something was passed on to these girls.  If nothing else a sense that there’s some older women who care about them and that it’s a valuable thing to become a godly woman.