Woohoo!!!!!
Happy Birthday to me!
So, Mountaingirl, tell me…how are you going to celebrate your birthday?
I’m Going to Disneyland!!!
See you all when I get back from the happiest place on earth!!!
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Dreams, pt. 11
I’ve been working on this dream sequence for a little over two weeks now. I thought I was done, but I think I’ll do one more entry. Here’s the original post.
As I look forward, I think it’s important to look back at the lessons learned. I want to be a quick learner, so that I don’t keep repeating my mistakes. What are my mistakes? I have made plenty.
Mistake #1) I assumed that other women felt the same burden I have. When I prayed the prayer and asked God to break my heart for the things that break His heart and help me discover joy in the things He delights in…I believe He answered. It became so obvious to me that change needed to happen…I guess I assumed that others saw it as being so obvious, too. Why hadn’t they made the change? Because they were waiting for somebody else to do it…and I was willing to help do that. It was so obvious that women needed to learn how to grow in Christ. It was so obvious that women needed genuine friendships. It was so obvious that women needed to shed their masks and find a safe haven to be themselves. It was so obvious that women needed to discover who it was that God made them and thrive in that life and live out their dreams. It was so obvious that women needed opportunities to reach out to our community with acts of service. It was so obvious that women needed healing. It was so obvious that the methods we were using were antiquated and minimally effective.
Looking back…I guess it wasn’t so obvious. Maybe it was, but some women chose the comfort of what they know rather than taking a risk to try something new. I was reading Mark Driscoll’s book, Radical Reformission. He was telling a story about a pastor friend of his who was hired by a dying church to help them get out of their rut. Driscoll says this, “What he quickly learned, however, what that while they wanted things to change, they did not want to change.” I thought I knew this already, but I thought this was just an older person thing…I was surprised by some of the younger women not wanting to change, too. I thought the younger women would embrace the new, fresh opportunities.
Mistake #2) I didn’t pray enough. Looking back, I wish I would’ve spent more time on my knees praying for women and their hearts. I did spend a lot of time in prayer at the beginning of the journey…but that started to dwindle near the end. I didn’t figure this out until I found myself not caring anymore. Not only should I have spent more time in prayer, but I should’ve surrounded myself with women who love to pray and ask them to pray for the hearts of women across our community, too. I wonder where we would be today, had 10, or 5, or even 3 women commit themselves to pray for the women on a consistent basis.
Mistake #3) I didn’t spend enough time with my leaders. I wish that I could’ve focused my time on encouraging and equipping and motivating my leaders. I should’ve given up more of the administrative side to someone else, and spent my time pouring into the lives of the women who are serving.
That last mistake is a big deal to me…this is why I strongly believe that the next women to become the women’s ministry director needs to be somebody who is older…somebody who is retired or an empty nester. She needs to be somebody who has the time to spend with her leaders.
Those are my top three mistakes. There are many more, of course. There were times when I got in the way of what God wanted to do. There were times when I took things too personally. There were times when I didn’t do things I should’ve and there were times I did things I shouldn’t have.
If I had it to do all over again I would focus on not making my top three mistakes. Perhaps I’ll get another chance down the road.
At the beginning of this post I said this would be the last…but I have some more stuff on my heart that I’ll share. I promised to share my current heartbreak. I still want to do this, but am having problems formulating it in my mind and getting it out in words.
