Well you might already know that but I'm just sayin.
Last night I met my sister in law Danielle to attend a womens bible study that is through our newer church. Something that was really important to me in changing churches was that we get more connected and form more relationships within the church. Unfortunately we haven't been able to connect with a life group because our schedule is a little crazy. Since I quit my job I work at VSA on Monday and Tuesday evenings so those nights are out. Then Wednesdays Rob had class. So our only family nights were Thursday and Friday plus the weekends BUT I do have a thriving business with Tastefully Simple and you guessed it...thursdays, fridays and saturdays are my prime days for parties. So needless to say it was difficult to find a day that worked.
So when a new bible study started on Wednesday nights and Robs school schedule changed I decided I *might* try it out. You know the feeling. You think it's exactly what you need but you sorta drag your feet for no good reason and hesitate to commit because your life is overcommitted as it is.
Well last night I had all the reasons not to go. Because Max hadn't napped a wink all day and then I took him to a 2 hour playdate with our friends Heather and her daughter, ahem, I mean Max's girlfriend. He was exhausted and a TOTAL crankpot by the time we made it home.
The temperature was dropping and I had on darn cute flats without socks.
The good news is I had already extended the invitation to Danielle and she wanted to go so God did a neat little job of roping me into it despite my reservations and plain ol laziness.
WOW. I love when He does that. Because He normally does that when there are really good things involved.
When we arrived I recognized Natalie right away. Pretty easy since I have been reading her blog for the past two years. Lonnnnnnnng story short my friend Julie works at our church. Natalie and her husband led a lifegroup that Julie and her husband Trevor were a part of. So I knew of them through the grapevine. Julie recommended that I read Cindy Beall's blog because she rocks so I did and on her link love I found Natalies blog and have been reading both of them for awhile now. The blog bug bit me hard when Rob was deployed so I found a lot of great blogs.
Anywhoo, Cindy was there too along with lots of other women that I recognize from church and a few unfamiliar faces. Last connection of the day is that ANOTHER amazing blogger that I get the privilege of knowing in real life is Andi Hawkins who is also known as the Running Mama and she and Cindy have reconnected through the blogosphere as well. Shewwwwww, I tell you all that just because I think it's pretty cool how God is invested in the details and the connecting points of our lives.
Ok the REAL reason I say that God is cool was because of the subject matter. I had no idea walking in what we were going to be studying. Natalie quickly explained that our first 5 weeks were going to be focused on studying the tabernacle of the Old Testament and the temple of the New Testament. I have read these verses before, I mean it's pretty common subject matter that we are the temple of God in the New Testament and I have looked and read and thought about those verses frequently in the past two years as I have focused on my health.
But NEVER had I studied the tabernacle in the Old Testament. I have probably skipped over the talk of the tabernacle in Exodus many times because let's get real, it's long and it's very detailed. And if you aren't correlating it to the TEMPLE of the New Testament aka US then its a little tedious to read. What Natalie did an awesome job of doing was opening my eyes to was the care, attention, and love that God put into the details of the O.T. tabernacle. Then when you STOP and think that same care, attention and love is exactly what he wants for us as his TEMPLE then it takes on a WHOLE NEW FREAKIN COOL meaning.
Where it really really really hit home though was that the past few weeks God has been working on my heart about my health, ahem, again. It seemed like a weird time for that to be on my heart because um yeah I am pregnant. It's not the time I can go start a new routine or cut my calories or whatever. But I knew that there was a definite calling going on to spend time thinking about my health. I knew it wasn't a call to do something physical but rather emotional and mental. I am TIRED of not feeling healthy. I am TIRED of the condemnation *eh eh Natalie* that I have felt about my weight struggles. But what can I do about it when I have 18 more weeks of baby growing going on?
THIS. This study is EXACTLY what I can do while I grow baby Stella. I can study and read and learn and roll around and relish reading the details of God's care for the tabernacle and then I can sit and let Him smack me in the head while I realize that THIS IS WHY WE ARE THE TEMPLE. AND THIS IS WHY WE HAVE BEEN CALLED TO TREAT OURSELVES AS SUCH. AND THIS IS WHY I CANNOT MOVE FORWARD UNTIL I FIGURE IT ALL OUT!
I am too excited to go back and read and edit this gigantically long post. I just had to write it out because although you might be completely confused and see no connection whatsoever I felt like God played connect the dots with me last night. Ding, Ding, Ding, I get it. And I am so thankful that I went last night.
God is cool.
Jesi
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