Here are the notes from our speaker this weekend. Tonya Riggle is a teacher at our church and if you ever have a chance to hear her speak, she is incredible. (Mind you this is what I heard and took away..so if it is misrepresented or off, its MY fault)
Tonya started off by talking about her girls start forming their idea of beauty during the elementary years. She had three vases on the stage. She said their opinions form their soul. The first set of roses were these beautiful roses in a fresh vase. She said the beauty of the rose came from within. Everyone could see that it was beautiful. Not only that, but when the rose was attached to the vine (our Heavenly FATHER), it drew life from Him. The rose's beauty was consistent, soft, it was full of integrity. It was also congruent. Not only that, but the rose gave off a sweet aroma. Its gift was itself. It ministers to the soul. And yet, it has thorns. Its imperfect but the imperfections did not diminish its beauty.
The next vase of roses she had were wilting. She said they had not enough water and too much heat. This is what believing the lies about beauty did to our girl's soul. Comparison and Envy were to blame. Their souls were wilting because of overexposure to lies and not enough truth(water) about real beauty.
The last bunch of roses looked near perfect. Each one had a beautiful color, and were abundantly blooming.. BECAUSE they were FAKE! They were mass produced and completely stricktly for outward beauty. They were MAN MADE. These are the girls who are being distracted by a fake outward beauty that was scorching their soul. This rose had no inner beauty, no softness, no aroma. It wasn't a gift. It was SCORCHING their souls.
Then Tonya quoted 1 Peter3:4
NIV: Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which of great worth in God's sight.
NASB: but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
She continued to talk about how gentle and quiet weren't necessarily talking about your mouth, but your SPIRIT, your soul.
God has a beauty for them to blossom into beyond what they can imagine. So, how do we cultivate that beauty.
She turned to a passage in Isaiah Chapter 27.
"In that day, "A vineyard of wine, sing of it!
I, the Lord, am its keeper;
I water it every moment
So that no one will damage it,
I guard it night and day.
I have no wrath.
Should someone give Me
briars and thorns in battle,
then I would step on them, I
would burn them completely.
Or let him rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me.
In the days to come Jacob will
take root
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the whole
world with fruit.."
Is 27:2-6
In verse 3, the Lord waters the vineyard. He waters it every moment. He waters our girls daily. We need to also water them daily. with lifegiving, nourishing, refreshing words to their soul. "I love you all the time." I felt like saying NO MATTER WHAT. No matter what grades you get, what clothes you wear, what friends you make. Then she said this.. It really spoke to me. We can't stop Satan from lying to our girls, but we can come against him with TRUTH.
God also says in verse 3, He guards it day and night. In a very specific way. She called us to guard our girls against the barrage images of fake. To cover them from overexposure. From living a fake lifestyle. She said this fake life will eventually ask her to prove her beauty, by the way she is dressed, or even what she does physically.
In verses 4 and 5 she expanded on the process of the Lord bloom the plant. It would come under the Lord's protection.. God has a process in her life for increasing her beauty.
I think it was here she talked about her son and a child who was telling him lies at the lunch table. He was being called stinky pants. She continued to talk about all the things she WANTED to do... give the boy a piece of her mind, just be her son's silent bodyguard in the back of the classroom, accidentally "trip" the boy during the the lunch line. She said, she couldn't do that. She couldn't be there every moment with her boy, but she could come against the lies.
She said she and her son developed a habit of talking at night. Her son would say what "so and so" said. After he vented, she would say, well, what does God say? Who does he say who you are? Things like "God says you are His." "God says that he as a perfect plan for your life." etc etc. Then she would ask her son, who spoke the truth? the kid at school or God.
She used this example for us to direct our girls/boys to the ultimate Gardener. We can't be there every moment of their lives, but GOD CAN. She also said (and I LOVE THIS) "the Sovereign Holy One's intention for your girl is for her to BLOOM. To name her the beauty that she is."
She also encouraged us moms to cast vision for them. By this she means for example saying: I saw how kind you were to that new girl. That is beautiful God is going to use you and your kindness to do something beautiful with your life. He is going use you for GREAT things.
She said to celebrate with your girls and then watch the unfolding of their keeper.
Tonya then had us take a look back at the passage. She said, not once did God say during this that we were his HELPER in this process. The Lord is her keeper. He will water her. He will guard her.
She finished off by saying that there was NO AGE LIMIT to this garden. God will continue to bloom us mom's as his beautiful vines. There is a source of water for our souls.
Wasn't that FABULOUS?
I couldn't help but have some thoughts..
I took away from this the idea that we need to teach our girls to look to the Lord for water, protection, life and beauty. Its His job to provide that, but its our JOB to direct our children to HIM.. To teach her how to have a relationship with him, to STUDY his written word and to delight in His ways. Especially the habit of Quiet Time.
A few weeks ago, during BSF, Ann asked us "if we were substituting finishing our Bible study lesson for quiet time?" Umm.. yes.. I always thought that was the same thing. But after thinking about it over and over, i'm starting to realize that its not. Meditating and reflecting on God's word's is great and needed for sure, but Quiet Time is something more. I still haven't figure that out.
So how about YOU? What does Quiet Time look like for you? How do you stay on track? How does it play out? Do you Pray? Do you read? How do you know what to read? How long?
I was really encouraged to not only get in God's Word become fulfilled and nourished but also teach my girls to do the same. I can't help but remind myself that we are not like a CUT rose. We are still ON THE VINE ready to bloom and blossom under God's provision and PROTECTION. I'm safe there and so are my kids.
.JPG)
