It's a little bit sad...

In a few weeks, our church will be restructuring the way that we do small groups. we are not really sure how this is going to affect our small group. Right now we are all signed up to attend the same small group, but the dynamics of the group might change drastically. This makes me a little sad. Our small group has come to feel a little like family to me over the last 5 years and needless to say this has been a very hard transition for me ...and I wish that I could say that I handled it with grace, but...well, lets just say...that didn't exactly happen.

Anyway, the girls in our small group have been doing Beth Moore's Stepping Up Bible study. We were doing a lesson a month, but had to speed things up a little to ensure that we finished the study before the small group changes took affect.

Tonight was our last night of the Bible study and I wanted to give the girls something that they could have to remember the study by and as a little good bye to small group gift. I didn't have as much time as I initially thought due to our altered schedule. So, I wasn't able to accomplish all that I had wanted to, but I made each of them a Bible Study Tote with their initial on it. In each of the totes, I placed a Bible Study Journal in which I had written a little message about how much I loved and cherished each of them and a bottle of water. I had wanted to get one of those cute metal water bottles, a candle and make a luggage tag for each girl as well, but just didn't have time to get all of that together. The items would have had significance from our study. The main premise of the study was talking about a pilgrimage. The Jews made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and would recite the Psalms of ascent that our lessons were surrounding. Beth compared their journey to our journey/ growing in our relationship with Christ. So, I thought that a luggage tag would have been a fun way to represent that. Beth also talked about the 3 feasts that the Jews were returning to Jerusalem for and the significance of light and water in them...that is where the thought for the water bottle and the candle came from...

Although I couldn't get all of that done in time, I think that the girls liked their little bags and journals. I am going to miss our time together as girls, but I am looking forward to continuing on this crazy journey of life with them...come what may....