This past weekend was full of fun moments. It was busy to say the least, but a blast indeed.

I'll begin with Friday night:

I love my church. Obviously I love it. I am employed by it. However, one thing we're lacking is a solid "Singles Group." Now, here me when I say that I terribly hate the term "singles group." It's just...awkward. Anyhow, we're missing those types of folks here, but just recently I have come across many girls who are looking for a place to belong after they've graduated. I mean, if we're honest here, that can be a very awkward time in life. You don't quite know where you belong. So, Friday night one of my friends asked if we could use our house for a "single ladies" get together and I gladly said yes. About 10 girls came over and we had the best time! We made pizzas and just chatted. It was refreshing getting to hang out with girls that are in the same season as I am in. A blessing indeed!

Saturday Morning:

Saturday I got up early, packed an overnight bag, got ready for the day and headed to College Station with the parentals. A&M and Baylor were playing each other and we had a fun tailgate planned for the families of the students that go to those schools from our church. We do it every year and it's always a great group of folks. This year unfortunately it was rainy, cold and humid which in return made for the worst hair day of 2009, but that's clearly beside the point. Who worries about hair when your surrounded by the people you love the most? Kidding. Maybe.

After standing in the glorious mist for 2 hours, my parents took me, my little brother and a few friends back to my little brother's apartment where we hung out until my roommate, Claire came to pick me up for a wedding shower I had that night for a dear friend who's getting married next month. I have seriously never been more grateful for my Chi straightener. I needed a miracle on my hair, and it provided one. Are you noticing a hair theme here?

Claire picked me up, dropped our stuff off at her in-laws house, had a tasty dinner at Ninfa's where we counseled our waiter on relationships, and then we headed to the shower. It was so fun, but after cuddling in the papason chair for about 15 minutes with Claire, my eyes were so tired I could barely keep them open. I was so exhausted from the days activities.

It didn't help when I thought about the fact that I had to be up extra early Sunday morning since I'd have to drive in from College Station to be at church on time. All was well, though. After the shower, we crashed. Only after a laughing attack in bed, of course.

Sunday was a nice day and I got to see my girls! Since the girls retreat was last weekend we didn't have small group, so I just needed to see their sweet faces since it'd been two weeks since I'd heard what was going on with life. I know it was only two weeks, but boy oh boy do I cherish those girls. And folks, a lot can happen in two weeks in the life of a high school senior girl. It was a smaller group this week due to the Thanksgiving holidays, but sometimes those are the best. We chatted, and chatted and chatted some more. In all seriousness, as a small group leader, I could not ask for a better group. Don't even get me started on the fact that they'll be graduating in 6, I tell you 6 short months. It will be a tragedy indeed. I love them to pieces.

This semester Beth Moore has been going through Revelation during our Tuesday night Bible Study. It has been riveting to say the least. I know so many of you have been asking me how it was and most times I don’t have a reply for you because it’s just that hard to explain. But lucky for you, they are selling this series starting now on the Living Proof Website. If I were you, I’d get my hands on it pronto.

However, last night as we got started, I got to thinking about a few things. So many nights I just wish all of you could come join us at bible study. We always start out with praise and worship, and then get into our study. It is so neat to watch that thousands of ladies worship together even though we all come from different walks of life, seasons of life and generations. It’s truly something that can’t be explained and I know anyone that goes to Tuesday Night Bible Study would agree. What makes it so unique and neat is that it’s not something that just happens every few weeks or months, but that worship happens weekly. Weekly we gather together as fellow believers for one reason. To worship our Jesus. The Spirit is so welcomed there. As Beth said last night, I think God really likes Tuesday nights. And I so agree.

That’s just one part of it though.

The other part that you don’t see is the actual taping of the series.

I don’t know diddly squat about what goes on after a series is wrapped up, but I’m not going to pretend that it’s far more than I could probably imagine. Just the work that goes into taping it makes me want to sweat a little.

Everything and I do mean everything has to be set and ready to go in order for you to get a copy in your hands. You get the finished, polished product. You don’t actually see what goes on behind the scenes.

I may not see what goes on behind the scenes either, but I can guarantee you that during Tuesday night bible study, I have sat through many a taping and the minute one thing goes wrong, everything is put on hold.

Take for instance last night.

Sweet Beth had literally just said about 10 words when her microphone went all wonky. It was a doing a little echo sound which in return sounded like a little jig. Immediately she stopped talking and the crew went to work on fixing whatever issue was at hand.

For the time being, Beth was having a little conversation with the people in front that could hear her and the rest of us just sat waiting patiently. When they finally got her microphone working, we had to start over again. Thankfully, like I said, she’d only said about 10 words but we were all so tickled, as was she.

We had to begin again like nothing ever happened. Like everything was a-okay.

Of course just getting off of the retreat chaos, my mind immediately resorted to this past weekend because that is exactly what my retreat was about.

Behind the Scenes was the theme and we just talked about how all of us (myself included) go about doing our day to day things, making it look like everything is fine and dandy, when in reality, we have more going on behind that smile, outfit or joke than we ever care to admit to. We put on a façade that leaves us terribly empty and void of living a life to the full, yet everyone thinks we are just fine. And we like them to think that everything is just fine.

The retreat was amazing! Everything about it went so smoothly and the girls responded so well to the weekend.

Four girls accepted Christ which was just enough to send me over the edge. I was so overwhelmed watching those girls worship our Jesus. I want them to “get it” so bad. I want them to fall head over heels in love with our Jesus and my prayer is that they see that in my life. I want it to be contagious and genuine. No, I am not perfect and am so far from it, but I do love Him. And I love that He knows what He’s doing with my life.

My prayer for them the whole weekend was that there would be a paradigm shift in their thinking. That they would know that there is freedom and acceptance to be real with the Lord and with each other when everything is not going okay.

I don’t think its okay to raise up a generation and train them in thinking that they need to always have it together. Not, it’s not okay. Life is hard. We sin. We go through stinky situations. And the truth is, we can’t do it alone and we can’t ignore the fact that our life isn’t perfect.

So many of the girls, I think, got that this weekend. They are perfectly loved by God and since they are perfectly loved by Him, they have nothing to lose when it comes to being authentic and genuine in how they live their lives. I pray they got it. During the retreat I was overwhelmed to the point that I could have bawled. I cannot believe I get to do what I get to do. I can’t believe the Lord would let lil’ ole me serve these precious teenage girls. I don’t take it for granted one bit. He deserves and is so worthy of all of my praise. His grace is more than I can fathom.

So, in a few weeks when you get the new Revelation series on DVD, don’t think for one second that those sessions were recorded with no bumps. There is so much more going on behind the scenes than you’ll ever see. Fortunately, that’s how it goes in the process of making a DVD series.

Unfortunately, we like to let it fool us. That is not how it should go down in our real lives. We are so good at fooling people it’s scary. I’m afraid I fool myself sometimes!

If you prayed for the retreat, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. They were so heard, appreciated and answered. The Lord is so good and has overwhelmed me with His goodness. He knows what He’s doing, y’all. I can’t manipulate one thing, but I can certainly pray that I’m serving and encouraging a generation to live in front of the scenes instead of behind it. And I can strive to be one, imperfect example of that.

You never really know what is going on behind the scenes. Because things really aren't always what they seem.

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” Psalm 32:1-5

Most of you know that while I was attending Sam Houston State, I was involved in a bible study there called Truth that was held at the church I attended there. Our teacher each week whom I came to love and adore and who can preach the word like no one else was Afshin Ziafat. His testimony is incredible and his love for the Lord is nothing but contagious. During college was when I really grew in my own faith, and not my parents and so much of it I thank Afshin for because he challenged me weekly.

Afshin is from Iran and for the past few months has started a movement called Free Them. It is for two girls, Maryam and Marzieh, to help get them out of prison in Iran for sharing their faith and the love of Christ.

It has been a long journey to say the least and Afshin has not given up hope for them.

Well, today I saw on the website that these two girls were released from prison today! Can we give him some praise, y'all? I think we so take for granted that here in America we can share our faith so freely with no condemnation. But the sad truth is, we rarely actually do it. But then these two girls do it in a country where it's illegal and get put in prison for it. I can only imagine how much they have suffered for Jesus Christ.

I just wanted to share this story with you. It makes me want to be more bold in sharing my own faith. Because boy oh boy do I not do it enough and to say that I take the freedom here for granted would be quite the understatement. So, join me in celebrating their release! Our God is good and does hear our cries!

Feel free to check out the story for yourself here!

I don't have anything to even say to start this post out in some sort of creative way, so I'm just going to get to the list. Here goes.

1) I currently have 128 unread blogs in my google reader. Why do I do this to myself? Why? The awful part is, I'm a little OCD and it's hard for me to just go "Mark them all as read" and move on with life. No, I have to read every stinkin' one. When oh when will I find the time? It will be done. Maybe.

2) Clearly, I am behind on blog reading. So behind, in fact, that Jen had to tell me about the post she wrote about just yesterday where she mentioned that I played soccer as a wee one.

3) Yes, I played soccer. When I was 5. I was the goalie. It was a bad, bad situation. I was afraid of the ball. Need I say more?

3) Have y'all been watching The Biggest Loser? You know, my favorite show of all time? It's been so good and unfortunately, my favorite contestant, Abby, had to go home last week. She is a doll. I just love her to pieces and pray huge blessing on her life. If you need some inspiration and hope, just go read her story.

4) Part of the reason I have a ridiculous amount of unread blogs is because next weekend is my second girls retreat! Woo hoo! Can I get an AMEN?! I am so very excited about it. If you remember, last year sweet Shelly was my speaker and Abby was my worship leader. To say that we had a blast serving together is an understatement. I hope and pray that one day we get to do it again, but unfortunately, it won't be this year. However, I am just as excited about this years retreat. The theme is Behind the Scenes and is based off of Psalm 32:3. Needless to say, I am currently eating, breathing and sleeping everything girls retreat. It kind of feels like planning a wedding. Not that I've ever planned one, but still, you get the point. My dreams are consumed with it as well. You know, those dreams where you wake up and you're super glad it was a dream? Yes, that's how much I'm thinking about and planning this retreat. Your prayers are much appreciated and you'll definitely be hearing more about it!

5) This time change has me all whacked out. I feel tired earlier, which isn't an awful thing, but then the sun decides to go ahead and wake me up at 5:30 a.m. Maybe that's a little extreme, but I'm not sure how I feel about the time change business. I've always been iffy.

6) Shane & Shane came out with a new CD this past Tuesday and it is wonderful. I know I've mentioned them a time or ten on here, but I just adore them. Their music speaks to me like no other. "Everything is Different" is now on iTunes and at your local Lifeway, I am sure. With that said, you should buy it yourself. It is a little blessing wrapped in plastic. And no, they did not ask me to advertise for them, although I would any day.

7) This semester I've been going through Revelation with Beth Moore. Y'all, it has been intense and amazing all at the same time. I really don't even know how to blog about it, it's just too much! The neat thing is that most semesters, the ladies towards the end of the study start to fizzle out. Don't get me wrong, the sanctuary is always full to the brim, but the crowds die down. However, this semester the crowds have stayed strong. Even with the not-so-fun adventures in getting there and parking, it's so worth it. I would do it over and over. So, go ahead and add to your Christmas wish list the Beth Moore CD's or DVD's on Revelation. You will not be disappointed. And yet again to clarify, she did not ask me to advertise, but shockingly, I'd do it any day, along with Shane & Shane.

8) I know I have a lot more to say, but it's late and I'm pretty sure I just dozed off as I was typing this. That's a hint: GO TO BED!

9) But 8 is a weird number to end on. Like I said, I'm OCD.

10) Goodnight Moon.