January Positive Woman Connection!

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Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are off to a fresh start for the New Year.  Please mark your calendar for the January Positive Woman Connection meeting and plan to invite a friend to this tremendous time together.  We will be continuing our study of Colossians and our topic is, “A New You in the New Year.”  Come and be blessed and strengthened by the teaching of God’s word. 

Colossians reminds us to “set our hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set our minds on things above not on earthly things.”  As we head into 2011, may our motto be: Hearts and Minds toward Heaven in 2011!  I look forward to seeing you in January at The Positive Woman Connection.          

Tuesday, January 25 at Prestonwood Country Club in North Dallas 12:00 – 1:00 RSVP to Donna Skell

dskell@roaringlambsministries.org

Wednesday, January 26 at Cottonwood Creek church, HWY 121 in Allen, 12:00 – 1:00 RSVP to Sandy Prowant at  prowant@cottonwoodcreek.org

Demonstrating Thanksgiving

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This past week we had Positive woman Connection oneweek earlier than usual due to the holidays this week.  We had a wonderful time.  We get together early next month as well, so mark your calendars for Dec 14 in North Dallas or Dec 15 for our Cottonwood Creek location.  Have a blessed Thanksgiving.  Here’s a little thought about demonstrating Thanksgiving to your kids:
Our own example offers the most effective teaching tool when it comes to teaching gratitude to our kids. We can try to pound the lesson of thankfulness into our children’s hearts and minds, but when we demonstrate a grateful heart with our words and actions they catch the lesson and keep it. So how do we demonstrate gratitude? Here are three ideas to get you started:

1. Tell your kids how thankful you are for them. That’s right, be specific and tell each child several of the qualities you really appreciate about them. It’s something our kids need to hear (as opposed to nagging all the time) and they need to experience how it feels to be on the receiving end of kind and grateful thoughts. Although we assume our kids know how thankful we are for them, they need to hear it specifically expressed now and then.

2. Speak in a grateful way about the rest of your family members (that means your husband as well as your extended family) behind their backs. Instead of complaining about aunt Nancy’s conversation skills or her awful sweet potato casserole, talk about how thankful you are for her gifts or talents or character qualities. Let’s demonstrate to our children how to look for the good in others, rather than what is wrong with people.

3. Take time to stop and thank the Lord for His blessings. When you recognize God has allowed something good to come into your life, take a moment to say, “Kid’s I just want to stop and thank the Lord for His kindness.” Then ask the kids to join you in prayer as you thank the Lord. Even when things aren’t going so perfect, you can always thank God for His presence and His help in time of need. I’m reminded of the story of the ten lepers. Ten were healed, but only one came back to say thank you. I want to be like that one who said thanks.

This week, take some time to allow gratitude to fill your thoughts and hearts and to overflow from your mouth. Most importantly demonstrate your thankfulness by reaching out and helping others. You are never so beautiful as when you are living a grateful life. Show others what a thankful heart looks like as you celebrate this week with family and friends. 
I’m thankful for you! Keep shining His light.

The Joy of Knowing God

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 Hello Positive Friends,

We will be getting together soon as we meet one week earlier in November.  At Presontonwood Country Club on Nov 16 and at Cottonwood Creek on Nov 17.  Looking forward to seeing you soon.  The following is a devotional thought from my book Thrive, Don’t Simply Survive.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, “If we begin to worship and come to God again and again by meditating, by reading, by prayer; and by obedience, little by little God becomes known to us through experience. We enter into a sweet familiarity with God, and by tasting how sweet the Lord is we pass into . . . loving God, not for our own sake, but for Himself.”4 We can fall into the arms of a God who we know and love, but it is difficult to trust someone we do not know personally.

We cannot understand all of God’s ways, but there are certain qualities we can know about him. Where do we begin our journey of knowing him? The Bible gives us glimpses of the High King of heaven and his marvelous attributes. Here are a few of the numerous qualities we learn about God as we see them revealed in the Bible. I have provided just one biblical reference for each attribute, although there are numerous others.

He is:

Almighty (Genesis 17:1)

Everlasting (Genesis 21:33)

All-Powerful (2 Chronicles 20:6)

Abundant in Strength (Psalm 147:5)

Abounding in Love (Psalm 103:8)

Sovereign (Deuteronomy 3:24)

Merciful (Psalm 62:12)

Trustworthy (2 Samuel 22:3)

Our Keeper (Psalm 121:2)

Our Provider (Matthew 6:26)

Our Good Shepherd (John 10:11)

Able—nothing is too difficult for him (Genesis 18:14)

I want to get to know a God like this, don’t you? Certainly He is worthy of our respect, obedience, and yes, trust. Consider where you are with God right now in your life. What do you believe about him? We don’t want to make assumptions about God; rather, we want to explore who he claims to be. As we get to know the God of the Bible, we begin to recognize his abiding love for us. He is worthy of our trust. I encourage you to continue your journey of engagement with God.

How Devoted are You

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Hello my Positive Friends,

It was great to see you last week at the Positive Women Connection. We missed those of you who were not able to make it. Our lesson focused on the beauty of Christ, and our beauty because of what He has done for us.  Please be sure to mark your calendars for our next PWC as it is one week earlier as we break for the holidays. 

Nov 16 – Prestonwood Country club and Nov 17 at Cottonwood Creek.

Here’s a little devotional thought for you this week:

Baylor UT game

 

This weekend I was down in Austin, Texas cheering my team on to victory. Yes, the Baylor Bears beat the Texas Longhorns! It was an exciting game, and I yelled for the Bears all the way through the game even though I was sitting in the middle of the UT side in a sea of orange shirts.  Yes, it was a little awkward, but I couldn’t hold back my devotion to the Green and Gold.

The apostle Paul talks about devotion of another sort.  He wrote to the Colossians, “Be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Now it’s one thing to be devoted to a sports team, but it’s another thing to be devoted to prayer.  One is done in a big show of shouting and cheering, another is done in the secret place where no one sees. Perhaps that is why it’s so easy to be devoted to a team, but so rare to be devoted to prayer.

What does it mean to be devoted to prayer? First of all it means recognizing its worth. In other words, we recognize and believe God hears our prayers and has the power and ability to answer. As we pray, we demonstrate our dependence on God and not solely on ourselves in bringing our requests to Him. We must also humbly realize that God may in His wisdom answer our prayers in different way than we requested.

Devotion to prayer also means setting aside time each day to go to our Heavenly Father giving our cares to Him, as well as praying to Him throughout our day.  It means we are watchful for needs and thankful for God’s hand at work. Consider the change in our hearts if we were as devoted to prayer as fans are devoted to their favorite teams. 

“Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.” William Wilberforce