so far, so fabulous:::

is anyone out there loving this study as much as i am?

day 2 and i'm already completely absorbed in beth's engaging and applicable teaching. what a fantastic woman of God. each page of the book is laden with piercing lines and heavy thoughts. i've been utilizing my sharpie pen like it's going out of style. so i couldn't help myself but to get on the blog and release some of this pent up inspiration!

on the first page of day 1's lesson, we see a very powerful statement:

"God overtook a human hand and scripted a
young woman's story into His own"

whew. shouldn't that be the goal and nature of all of our hearts? that God would script us into His own story? that we would be willing to hand Him the rights as scribe to our life? i love writing. and i love a fabulous pen as much as the next gal. so i know how scary it can be to withdraw your personal authorship, especially in regards to your own life. i mean-- we all know how WE want our story to end. we all have lists and dreams and aspirations. if we're not in charge of writing our story, how will those things come to be? and there's the catch. perhaps they won't. perhaps, when giving full copyright over to the Almighty, we'll get an ending better than anything we ever could have imagined. i savor the thought!

in day 2, beth shares that studying the scripture is her "lifeline". oh, that God would instill in me the discipline to make His precious words my source of strength and vitality. it shames me to admit that i don't read my Bible nearly as much as i should. and it often takes a study like this to really make me wonder, "why?" God's words are so full of encouragement, beauty, hope, conviction and teaching. He provided us the Bible for a reason, and i do myself an unfavorable injustice by slacking off on my dissection of it.

take for example the brilliant description of King Xerxes garden. (am i the only one who never pictured it as a garden?!) the pillars. the cloths. the goblets. the furniture. what a tangible view of biblical times. what glorious writing. how much we have to learn and gain from God's Word never ceases to amaze me.

in these early lessons, we are encouraged to look for something of ourselves within this study. it is my sincere prayer that each of you are doing just that!

here's to a continued week of digging in!