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Friday, January 23, 2009

Her Hands


One day, a while back, Heather and I were jogging together.
We were huffing and puffing through our neighborhood, looking our awesomest. (not really.)
We happen to pass two younger girls on the same side of the street.
They were deep in coversation as we were, and as I put my hand up in the obligatory we-live-in-the-same-neighborhood wave, they didn't seem to notice us at all.
I burst out laughing, and Heather seem to catch it at the same time.
Here they were, younger versions of ourselves.
Jogging along, huffing a little less, wearing much less, bodies unmarked by the ten...okay fifteen years we probably had on them, and the brew of children we'd collected.
We were both deep in conversation, but I couldn't help but wonder what they were talking about, and even MORE, what we would have been talking about fifteen years ago! We laughed when we wondered that aloud.
Now, Heather and I could have been, in that moment, in a deep discussion about who we were on LOST, Claire or Kate? Or something super immature. But we happen to be discussing grace, and something about teaching our kids about God. (Not every conversation we have glimmers with that much maturity.)
But fifteen years earlier? The topic easily could have been boys, boys, or gossip about girls. Those were popular ones during that era.
I think we both had the overwhelming urge, in fact, Heather did turn around and mock-yell "It's fleeting! It's so fleeting!" While they may have smoother faces, and look good in sports bras only right now, we know exactly how fleeting that is. (The Bible warns us of that of course.) And what we know about life and God in fifteen years of hard learning, we wish we could shout it to every passing college age girl. In fact, we do shout it. Every spring we have Her Hands. We basically shout out every hard lesson, every real truth, every biblical principle we wish we'd known when we sat where they sit now. Even though our bangs are not as big and we have houses packed with kids now, we remember it well. We remember our intense foolishness and pridefulness. We remember relying on our peers for "wisdom" who were in the exact same boat as us, struggling and failing with the exact same sins. We remember proof texting the Word to make it say what we wanted it to say so we could justify sin. We remember the fear of never getting married, and never having babies. We remember the utter distraction that boys were in our lives and the disastrous effects of dating relationships, dealing with the wreckage of break-ups constantly.
We remember.
And while those cute little girls who passed us in my neighborhood will never have to hear us shout it all at them, about 60 new girls this semester will.
(We really don't shout, though sometimes we'd like to.)
We're desperate for girls to walk in intimacy with the Lord, without distraction, throwing off foolishness. We're desperate for them to love God's Word before we did. We're desperate for them to say no to foolish dating relationships, heartbreak, and sexual sin.
So desperate, that Heather has written this amazing material called Her Hands.
About a cajillion hours have gone into this. Heather is a brilliant writer. The end-result is amazing!
We love college girls! They make our lives great! We love seeing them learn things before we did. It blesses us.
So we embark on a new semester. A new pack of 60 precious girls. New hope for them and their futures.
We hold nothing back.
If you are a woman, married or single, I highly suggest reading this material online.
It's free! And God has been using it as a tool to change women and make them look more like Him. It will be nothing short of challenging.
So here we go, Her Hands girlies. Let's get started!

4 comments:

Hendrick Family said...

Oh...I remember those girls.

No stretch marks. I can't even remember what that was like!

So excited to jump into this with you again sweet friend.

I'm ready for lots of laughs, lots of strange questions and lots of going blotchy.

Thanks for always sitting beside me, teaching with me and loving college women with your life.

You bless me.

I love you!

Heather

Jenn said...

As one who has waded through the deep sea called Her Hands ... I can only be excitedly filled with hope for the 60 new girls. For I KNOW how much it can change your life, how challenging it is, how honest & vulnerable the two of you are and how VITAL it is to learn what God says about being a woman who loves Him.

Jodi said...

I will be praying for these new 60 girls. Excellent Wife taught me so much truth. I am blessed to have gone through the class. It opened my eyes to the Lord and I have not turned back since! My favorite thing, learning that the bible has specific instructions for us as women and I cling to those with all my being. Honestly, right before I had Wyatt, I re read the book and all the hand outs and all the notes. It is amazing what God has brought me through. I started this class 3 weeks after my mom passed and the women I met brought me through... you being the main one Jenn!

I sure do love you! And I love Heather for being so honest with me and taking the time to keep sharing this with so many more girls!

You two are WONDERFUL! This class change my realitonship with the Lord to an Intimate one that I treasure.

MInTheGap said...

This is how, I believe, Titus 2 is supposed to work-- with those that are older training those that are younger. One of my pet peeves with the way most churches do these ministries is to skip the child bearing ages and go seniors to teens.

I'm glad that you see and long to share what you know with those coming behind, and I pray that you're able to find godly women to help you as you go to the next stage as well.

Why is it that we realize how much we should have listened to those older than us only after we could have used it the most.