Ready for the New Year

Summer is almost over...although, some days this summer I wondered if summer ever came!

We'll be jumping right back into the Club Mom and Girlfriends schedule on Sept. 16 and you DON'T want to miss it!! This is going to be an incredible year! We have some incredible speakers lined up, some fun activities and service projects. I can't wait to get back together with all you ladies and hear about your summers!!

This year, our theme verse is found in Jeremiah 29:11 and it says "'For I know the plans I have for you,' delcares the Lord, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

This verse always gives me such peace as I think about my future and what it holds. God knows the plans for ME! He doesn't want me to be harmed but he wants to prosper.

A definition of prosper: to be successful or fortunate, esp. in financial respects; thrive; flourish.

God's definition of prosper might be very different. Have you ever thought about the fact that if God gave you success in financial respects, you may think you have everything under control and think you don't need God anymore. Or, if you are flourishing, that it's by your doing and that you don't need to rely daily on our Lord and Savior.

Just because our society says that "success" is having money and a flourishing career, that doesn't mean God defines it that way.

The Hebrew word for prosper in this verse is "Shalom". We may associate this word with peace but it also means “Completeness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment. . . . Unimpaired relationships with others and with God.”

So the emphasis of the word is not on economic prosperity, but more on the positive relationship with God and others.

God wants a relationship with me...He's waiting for me to initiate it...waiting for me to come into his waiting arms...waiting for me to ask Him what His plans are for my future and boldly walking in faith that God plans will "prosper (me) and not harm (me), giving (me) a hope and a future."

Join us this year as we walk together on a journey of obedience to God in our daily lives.