In Bob Goff's fantastic book, Love Does, he talks about every time he types the word love into his phone it auto-corrects to live. I started paying attention, and it's true, that happens every time I type love. It's true though, that love and live are deeply intertwined. The more we love, the more we live. But HOW do we love? By saying the words? By sitting and talking about it? Or by getting up and doing something?
I have been going to Bible studies on and off for the past 20 years. I can't say it hasn't changed me. It has. It is essential to get the word of God into my life and to hear other's perspective on the word. To learn and grow together. But lately I've found myself in those studies feeling very restless. I'm tired of sitting and listening and learning. I want to put what I'm learning into action. I want to show others love. And not just to my friends.
I'm guilty of talking (let's be real, complaining/getting on my soap box) way too much and not doing anything! It drives me crazy about myself. If I want to change this world. If I want to make it a better place for my children and all the beautiful children out there. If I want to be an example to my children and show them what it truly means to follow Christ and what it truly means to love others, then I need to get up off my butt, stop talking, and start doing.
So, one of my dearest, kindred-spirit, friends, said, "Let's do it. Your heart is there, let's make it real." So we dreamed up this group. REAL, down to earth moms who want to serve others. Who want to raise their children to really know Jesus and His love. Who want to raise their children with a heart for others and with gratitude for all we have, even if it's not much.
So what does it look like? We will meet each Friday (attendance easy going, come when you can). Two Fridays a month we will go out into the community and serve directly. We will visit assisted living/nursing homes, among other service opportunities. The other two Fridays we will meet at a park or a home to pray for God to open our eyes to the needs around us. To brainstorm practical ways we can love and serve our neighbors, the poor, the widows, the orphans. We will teach our children a Bible verse using a fun song and share a short Bible story with them. We will then let them play while we will discuss a relevant book (you don't have to read it, we will summarize for you if you don't have the time) and make things we can take with us to serve. For example, we can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bag them up and you can take them with you to hand out to the person on the side of the road with the sign saying they are hungry. The kids can decorate the paper sacks we put the bags in. We can make a craft that we can take with us to the nursing home. Whatever we dream up, we can DO!
If this sounds like your heart too, please join us for our first meeting at South Buena Vista Park, in Vista, on Friday, September 6th, at 10am. If you haven't been there, it is a fenced in park, so it makes it much easier to let your kids play while we sit and discuss.
Here's to Living, Loving, and DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!
