I spent a weekend on a mountain in North Carolina at the gIRL gathering @ Black Mountain.  It was a beautiful mountain.  An incredible place that settled my spirit and allowed me a chance to just breathe in God.

Just a week later and I’m  deep in life again, but the mountain stays with me.

gIRL (girlfriends In Real Life) began as a way to bring online friends together for fun, fellowship and time in the Bible.  God’s plan is always so much bigger than ours.

I wish I could explain what happened on the mountain, but I don’t have the words (shocking, I know).  God did amazing work in the hearts of His gIRLs.  Friendships were formed, sisterhood was strengthened, hearts were opened to His truths and lives were changed.

God moved mightily and when Sunday came, I didn’t want to leave.  Sure, I missed my family, but I didn’t want to leave the peace I’d found on the mountain.  I wanted to stay and soak in more of Him.  I wanted to spend hours digging into the Word of God with my gIRLs,   I wanted to worship the Lord in that amphitheater under the canopy of trees.  I wanted to dodge crashing acorns while singing to Him.

But we had to leave.  We packed up and headed down the mountain and back to life.  But we headed back a bit stronger.  I walked back into life with more knowledge of what it means to be an authentic person.

A week later, I found myself in the same mountains with a completely different group of women.  This group was so much larger, but no more precious than the group of gIRLs from Black Mountain. I watched authentic women and I watched unauthentic women struggle to fit in, be accepted and be a part of the group. I wished all 7000 of them could have a time like we did on Black Mountain.

I was BLESSED to see two of my mountain gIRLs — Heather and Ellen!  And I was such a JOY to hug their sweet necks!

As I drove through the mountains Sunday, I realized that coming down a mountain requires lots of winding and curving left and then right.  You don’t go straight down – you climb up and then down.  And there are signs along the way to keep you on the path.

I need signs like this as I come down the mountain we found with gIRL.   I want to make sure I keep my feet to the course the Lord has called me to – I don’t want to spend time spinning my wheels in the grass.

It’s so easy to miss a curve and get off track as you head down the mountain.  It’s easy to zig when you really should zag. And it’s real easy to do when you don’t have any signs.

I’m holding on to my signs –

today my sign:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
(2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV)

I’m focusing on the treasure of God in my life – that He is the treasure and I’m the cracked, chipped clay jar.

What about you?  What signs are keeping you on the road?

So, here it is – the new site design!  I love it and let me just sing the praises of Karen at SimplyAmusingDesigns.

She is just AMAZING!!  I love her.   You must check her out.

Another new thing many of you are aware of but some are not, if you look in the upper right hand corner of the screen you’ll see a tab titled gIRL.  You will love gIRL! gIRL is a new ministry that I, along with Melinda and Karen. are heading up.  Well, we are just the worker girls, God is in control – and He is so amazing.  I hope you’ll take some time to take a look.

And then there’s the cruise happenings.  Premier Christian Cruises Girl’s Get A Way cruise is looking for ten bloggers to blog about the 2011 Girl’s Get A Way cruise!  As a cruise blogger you’ll be given topics and content to use in your blog posts, banners and buttons to put on your blogs and regular support from the Girl’s Get A Way cruise staff.

And you will earn $200 for every cabin that is booked with your code!  There will also be great prizes and a free cruise is among those prizes!  And those who book with you have the chance to win great prizes too!

It’s a great opportunity for bloggers!  So take a look!  All Aboard Bloggers Program

So that’s the latest around these parts…. how are things over in your neck of the woods?

Oh my… life does scat right along, doesn’t it?  Okay, did I just sound like an OLD WOMAN?  Yes, I did, just call me MeeMaw.

Anyway, on to the point if I can find one  …..  last summer I was in a Bible study with several of my local girls.  I loved it!  Something so laid back and casual about summer Bible study.  This summer our wonderful hostess and leader, Caprice, decided to do another Bible study.  (I think the nine long months of the school year made her long to have chatty, off-topic encouraging, bunch of women … oh wait, that’s just me).

This year we are doing a study I did eight years ago with some dear girlfriends.    I love looking back at that old Bible study workbook and reading the words of a younger version of me.  Some things are exactly the same — apparently I’ve got some issues I’m still struggling with.  Other things have changed so much.

The first time I did this study my girls were 9 and 15 and now they are 17 and 23 — my word!

The first time I did this study I was struggling to figure out who I am in Christ, today I know who I am in Christ.  I may not always act like it, but I do know it.

Just the other night, I sat around a table with the same girls I did that Bible study with eight years ago.  We’ve all changed a little.  No longer do we talk about grade school teachers and summer day camps.  Most of our children are grown and we have a few grand-babies in the mix.  We don’t have the innocence we once had, as we’ve walked some hard roads together.  We don’t see each other as much as we once did, because we’ve scattered like a dandelion blown for good luck.

This is the first time that all six of us have been together in a long time.  We get together several times a year, but it’s rare that we all make it.  All six of us together is such a treat and a joy.

Even with the hard roads, some sad deception that entered our midst, and rare get togethers,  when we’re together we  always manage to laugh until our sides ache.

The younger me remembers the days when these friendships were nothing but goodness and fun.  Today these friendships are precious and true.  We’ve been through some stuff together — some good and some bad, but we’re still standing.

In this whoosh of time from eight years ago until today, I realize that the bonds of these friendships were strained but they held.  Today I realize the enemy saw a group of Godly women who love Jesus and each other and he set his sights on us.  This older, smarter me knows that it is only in Christ that we are still able to sit around that table and laugh.    In Christ, we will continue to stand and our friendships will stand on the foundation of Christ.  — and the knowledge that no one else would get the onion rings joke!

Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
Isaiah 43:18-19 MSG

I love this verse and it speaks volumes over my life!  VOLUMES I tell you.   But before I turn this blog into a long dissertation on my ‘old history,’ let me just share a 2009 blessing and the 2010 Brand New blessing!

January 2009 also brought an incredible flood of new girlfriends.  Girls I’d only know through the screen came into my life in a very real way.   It seemed as if the Lord removed the book on girlfriends and replaced it with a whole slew of real life girlfriends.   One of those girlfriends is Melinda Garman.

Melinda and I met through our blogs and we chatted via email, but January 2009 we met in Atlanta to attend the Travis Cottrell taping.

I knew this was more than just a passing acquaintance – what I didn’t know was how the Lord was binding our hearts together for His good purpose.    In a weekend filled with laughter, incredible worship and tears of joy, God brought us together and the seeds of a ministry were planted.

Let me introduce:

gIRL: Girlfriends In Real Life
meeting God together on the other side of the screen

This is a ministry that brings the friendships  we forge through blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, from one side of the screen to the other…not just for a quick lunch or a quick “meet-up” after a conference, but for extended time together with God. We believe that God is calling us to deeper relationships founded on our relationship with Him, and that He is using social media to bring people together all over the world to achieve just that. We’re excited and humbled that He would be using us for this purpose!

Let’s take our love for the Lord and the fun of social media and let’s LIVE IT!

To get this ministry off the ground we knew we needed  input of girlfriends far and wide – we needed some girlfriend partners.  The Lord plopped Karen Barrows into our life in Memphis through social media and a wonderful girlfriend, Fran.

Karen has graciously given us use of an incredible home in the mountains for our first strategy session.  She’s a true treasure and our first gIRL ministry partner — she’s partnering with us as we plan our strategy session and possibly our first gIRL event in late 2010.

We need your prayers!  We are stepping out in faith and in the planning stages of this ministry.  Since we met online, connected through blogs, twitter, and facebook, we felt we should include our online friends in this process.  Please pray that we follow God’s plan and not our own.  Please pray that above all women are brought to a deeper relationship with Him and that He is glorified in everything we do.

Hang on – this is going to be one EXCITING ADVENTURE!