Don't Talk About It, Pray About It

Hello all!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I was looking at my Timehop and things I posted on social media this day but different years and this powerful quote came up.  It fits perfectly with our September topic of prayer.  I guess I have been working on praying more for awhile.  :)

Prayer Requests from September Meeting

Here are the prayer requests we received from our September GLAM meeting. Again,  I decided not to use names in case it's a more private issue, but I have included enough information so you are able to pray!

*Please pray for strength and answers for a family in Greenwood.  The little girl was recently taken to Riley for seizures.  She has been through a lot of testing to try and find out what is going on.

*Please pray for strength and comfort for a Greenwood woman who was diagnosed with ALS.

*Please pray for comfort for Marla's father in law who has had a lot of sickness and trouble managing the pain.

*Please continue to pray for 3 members of my family who are losing their jobs because of their company closing its Indianapolis offices.  We have had an answer to prayers because the company has extended the end date to November, giving them all more time to look for new employment.

*Please continue to pray for strength and healing for a former Greenwood teacher who is suffering from cancer.

*Please continue to pray for strength and healing for a workout buddy of Brittany and Lisa's who is also suffering from cancer.

*Please continue to pray for strength and healing for a coworker of Lauren's mom as her cancer has returned.

Let me know if I forgot any or if you have something to add!  There is power in prayer!

Work Your Schedule Around God

Hello all!  I need to get up prayer requests today but I stumbled across this awesome quote from Joyce Meyers and had to get it on the blog for everyone to see.  It goes perfectly with our September lesson on Prayer.

“Spending time with God is the key to our strength and success in all areas of life. Be sure that you never try to work God into your schedule, but always work your schedule around Him.”
~Joyce Meyer

I have really been trying to work on this since our last meeting.  It's hard because we all get so busy and think we can push our time with God to later, and then it eventually gets knocked out of the day or cut short.  If instead we work our schedule around God, putting him first, all of the rest of the day will follow and fall right into place. 

It's all about changing your thinking.  Instead of the to do list leading my day I need to rely on God and make sure I spend quality time with Him.

 

Choose to Move Event

I wanted to let you all know how the Choose to Move event went this last weekend.

 The GLAM members that attended said it was an awesome event.  There was a live band, snacks, and good fellowship.  There were people of all ages and race skill, and even dogs!

The event was for a great cause.  All proceeds went to the Indiana Parkinson's Foundation.  There were over 700 participants and over $30,000 dollars was raised for the foundation. 

What an amazing turnout!

Below is a picture of some GLAM members and their family before the race.

Euchre Night at The Hearth

I wanted to fill everyone in on a fun night some of the GLAM members had with The Hearth residents.

 We did some volunteering between scheduled GLAM monthly volunteer sessions and decided to play cards with the residents at The Hearth. 

It was so much fun! We had 3 tables going between residents and GLAM members.  There was a beginners table, a intermediate table, and an advanced table.  When I say advanced I mean it!!!  We have a family member who actually lives at The Hearth.  She was at the advanced table and she was a card shark!

It was a great time to really get to know the residents while enjoying something they love to do.  The residents seemed to enjoy themselves and many of them even asked how often we would be back. 

I will let you all know when we go again.  I definitely recommend coming a long even if you aren't they best card player.  We had great teachers!

To advertise to it's residents that there would be a card night The Hearth made fliers.  The fliers said Euchre with Lisa.  So, Brittany and I decided we needed a picture by the sign for the blog. :)

October GLAM Meeting

Hello all!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!  I wanted to get the next GLAM meeting info out so everyone can mark their calendars!

Sunday, October 19th at 6:00 PM
Brooke's House (me!)

If you need directions or have any questions, please contact Brittany or myself.  We look forward to seeing you all!

September Volunteer Opportunity

Here are the details for the September Volunteer Opportunity

Who: GLAM group and anyone who is interested!
Where: Saxony in Fishers
What: Choose To Move, which is a race where all proceeds will go to the Indiana Parkinson's Foundation.  There is a 10K run, 5K walk/run, and 1 mile walk/run.
When: September 20th at 9 AM

My aunt, and GLAM member Marla is a part of organizing this event.  She said you can register all the way up to the event and can find more information at fun-races.com.  If you just want to volunteer, come and we are sure there is plenty to do to help, even if it is just cheering on the participants.  You can also donate money any time to the Indiana Parkinson's Foundation. You can have your donation registered under her husband's name, South side Climb - Kevin Pace. 

This event should be fun!  It will be a great way to raise awareness while getting some exercise and enjoying the fall weather.  There will be food trucks and activities for children as well.

Hope to see you there!

September Meeting Notes

Hello everyone!  Hope you all had a great weekend.  Our September GLAM meeting on Sunday was really great.  We had a lot of good discussion and suggestions on the topic. 

I wanted to get the notes out for those of you who were unable to make it and want to follow along.

Our September GLAM meeting topic was: What is Prayer?

Brittany included her definition of prayer.  She listed that prayer is simply talking to God, building that relationship with him and speaking to him as a friend or a parent. 

1st John 3:1 states, "The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God.  And we really are his children."

Therefore prayer should be just as easy as a conversation between us and our parents.  God is our parent. We should feel comfortable and enjoy praying to him. 

In the meeting we focused on 3 great truths about prayer.

1st Truth:

It is the nature of God to hear and Answer prayers. 

There were two verses Brittany had found to really confirm that God is there for us, to hear us, and answer our prayers.

Psalm 65:2 - "You hear our prayers, all people will come to you."

Hebrews 12:6 - "So we can be sure when we say, 'I will not be afraid, the Lord is my helper.'"

Both are great examples of how God hears us, protects, us, helps us, and answers us.


2nd Truth:

It is impossible to know God or please him without believing and trusting in the fact that he hears and answers prayer. 

 

If we don't believe or trust that God answers prayers then how will we ever really know him or have a relationship with him where we can rely on him to help us?

Isaiah 40:25-28 - "God, the Holy One says, 'Can you compare me to anyone? Is anyone equal to me?'  Look up to the skies.  Who created all these stars?  He leads out the army of heaven one by one and calls all the stars by name.  Because he is strong and powerful not one of them is missing."

Genesis 28:15 - "I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

God is so amazing.  He has created EVERYTHING and is so powerful.  Why would be not believe that he can answer prayers?  That last line of the Genesis verse is so powerful.  He will not leave us until he has done what he promised.  If our prayers don't seem answered yet, he must not be done!

Another great scripture Brittany included for believing in God was Hebrews 11:6.

Hebrews 11:6 - "Without faith no one can please God,  Anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who truly want to find him."

It is important to believe he will, and he will!


Third Truth:

Every attribute of God is implied in the fact that he hears and answers prayer.

Four man attributes confirming this are:

1. God is a living God
2. Gos is all knowing and omniscient
3. God is all powerful and supernatural
4. He is a God of miracles

It is impossible to know or believe without trust.  God is ours for all eternity.  We can have a rock solid foundation for a relationship because he never changes.  He is always there for us and loves us. 

We ended the discussion with a powerful reminder.  God is knocking on our heart's door waiting for us to let him in. 


September Challenge:

Pray at least once a day to get in the habit of setting time aside for you to speak with God and build on your relationship with him!

After best practices from the group, some of us also decided to add the challenge of starting each day by naming 3 things we are thankful for!

I will add our next meeting and volunteer opportunities to the blog here soon as well as prayer requests.

Meeting Reminder

Friendly reminder!!!

Tonight is the next meeting of GLAM. If you are interested and able to come, meet at 6 PM at Lisa's house.

If you need directions let me or Brittany know.

Can't wait to see you all!

Have You Completed the August GLAM Challenge?

Happy Friday!!!  With our September meeting coming up I wanted to see how people are coming on the August GLAM Challenge.

Remember at our first meeting, (or in the notes I posted if you weren't there) Brittany challenged us all to extend an invitation to the next GLAM meeting to someone who might want to check it out. 

Now, if you just learned about GLAM, your new person to bring to the meeting could be yourself! 

The main goal was to get the word out there about the new group and to help people feel welcome to be a part of GLAM whenever they can!

I have really spread the word about the group and our goal and I have invited women left and right.  So, hopefully there are A LOT of new faces. 

The meeting is this Sunday and we look forward to seeing everyone who can come!

Our Next Volunteer Opportunity

Hello all! I know it's been about a week since our last GLAM post.  Sorry! I have been busy birthday celebrating :)   I wanted get back in the swing of things by letting you all know about our next volunteer opportunity!

Who: GLAM group and anyone who is interested in volunteering
Where: The Hearth
What: We are going to volunteer our time and have some fun playing cards with the residents. 
When: September 15th at 6:30 PM

If you can make it great!  This will be a great opportunity to volunteer and meet the residents while relaxing and playing cards.  I hear some of the residents can get a little competitive so we should be in for an exciting time!

Pursue Your Purpose

Hello all!  Hope everyone is having a great week.

 One of the GLAM members brought a devotional to my attention that aligns perfectly with our first meeting topic.  I decided to share it on the blog to get another point of view on the topic.

  The devotional was written by Joyce Meyers.  I really enjoy reading what she has to say.  She breaks it down and applies it perfectly to everyday life. She also tells it how it is, and I think we could all use a little of that in our lives!

Here is what Joyce wrote for her devotional today:
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides. —Matthew 6:33
Have you ever thought, “What is my purpose in life?” Each of us wants to feel we have a purpose . . . that we’re making a meaningful difference in the world.
God has a purpose for each of us, and that is to do right and glorify God.
How do you pursue your purpose? By getting up each day and putting God first. There are many other things we may be tempted to chase after—job position, education, relationships, money, material possessions, and so on. But too often when you attain these things your life is just as empty and unfulfilled as when you started.
God knows what you need and is well aware of your heart’s desires, and He will grant them if you will just pursue your purpose by seeking Him first.

This is so important to remember.  I am a Christian and strive to live right through God's eyes but I don't always wake up and put God FIRST.  As normal human beings we have a million things on our minds when we start our days, but as important as they seem, we need to focus on God and putting him first.  He will help us realize our purpose and get through all the obstacles!

Shopping for a Cause

Hello! Hope everyone had a wonderful, long weekend!  Just wanted to update you all on another volunteer opportunity that Brittany was a part of. 

Crosspoint Church in Fishers, where Brittany has attended many times since moving up there, had a drive at the beginning of the school year to help IPS students get uniforms.  Brittany participated and bought a couple different uniforms to help students in need. 

This was a great opportunity to help out and be a part of making a difference for the families impacted!