I am sitting on my couch with a sleeping cat draped over my abdomen, while reflecting on how significant this new Women’s Sunday School class is to me.  After three weeks, we now have twenty women.  God is filling this class with women who want to grow in their relationship to God, and I can’t thank Him enough!  This teaching ministry erased months of feeling frustrated, under-utilized, and unsettled.  After twenty months of applying “go until you hear no”, I knew May 15^th would decide whether I would remain at Riverbend or move on.  With twenty women now enrolled for my Sunday School Class, it’s clear that it is God’s will for me to stay where I am. 

My journey to find where God wanted me to teach turned out to be deeper than “Where does God want me to serve Him with my teaching gift? Here, or down the street?”  I felt frustrated because Austin didn’t feel like home to me until three weeks ago, and I’ve been here twenty months.  When I’m not teaching, life doesn’t feel normal for me.  Serving God through a teaching ministry has always been the centerpiece of my life.  Leading a weekly bible study isn’t just another commitment on my schedule.  Teaching Scripture is where I find my purpose in God’s kingdom.  How do I know this? 

My life choices, commitments, and how I manage time are organized around my teaching ministry and always have been.  Most people look forward to Fridays and the weekend, but the pinnacle of my week is Sunday morning.  When I get home from work, I begin working on the next week’s lesson.  That is not work to me.  That is FUN.  I am a regular student of those who communicate God’s Word effectively.  I have books on my shelf to help me improve how I teach.  I am always looking for a class or two sharpen my skills.  I pray that teaching will never be a burden, but always a joy and a passion.  I pray that the Lord will show me ways that I can improve as a teacher.  I pray that what I teach makes an eternal difference for everyone in my small groups.  I pray that He is glorified in my life.  It is my deepest desire to be faithful to use the gifts God has given me and to hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”(Matt 25:21) 

I bet I’m not alone.  Who doesn’t want to make a difference in the lives of others?  Don’t we all want to know that our life counts?  God created all of us with a purpose in mind.  He wants to fulfill our need to make a difference.  We are not on Earth to take up space for awhile.   Eph 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  He not only designed the blueprint of who we are (Psalm 139:13-16), but He has also predetermined the good works He wants us to do for Him before we were ever born!  We exist for Him.  So if you’re asking, “Why am I here?”, then know that the divine answer is simpler than you think!  If you “peel the onion”, you will find at the very core that you and I were created for a relationship with God through Christ Jesus.  It starts with your heart.  Do you desire to know God?  He is not hard to find.  He tells us in Acts 17:24-28 that He created us so that we would seek Him.  In fact, we are told that those who reach out to Him will discover that “He is not far from each one of us.”  He gives us His promise in Proverbs 8:17(b), “Those who seek me find me.”   Embrace the love relationship He offers you.  He will be faithful and show you what He has ordained for you.  God wants to do extraordinary things through ordinary people like you and me.  

My heart overflows with gratitude to God when He answers prayer.  He knows that I find my life purpose in teaching His Word.  I also want to thank everyone who prayed for this new ministry.  Thank you to those who called, texted, and emailed me to hear how the first class went.  God is going to do some special things in this class as we grow.  I am going to ask that you continue to pray for this new ministry and that I would always seek the leadership of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct my preparations and my teachings week by week.  It is a blessing to be in God’s family and know that I am supported in prayer.  Please keep them coming!  

Life is good, but all the sweeter when I am in the bullseye center of His will.  I now feel connected in Austin.  I’m home now. 

Blessings,

Lee Ann

The countdown has begun.  As of last Sunday, I am two weeks away from starting a brand new Sunday School class for women.  It will mainly be single women as well as women whose husbands won’t accompany them to church.  What happens on that first day of class matters.  May 15th will represent either a brand new chapter at Riverbend, my home church, or it will signal an end to my 18-month tenure there.

That may sound drastic, but I have always had a strong understanding of my purpose and the spiritual gift God gave me.  I was a senior in high school when my mentor, Hal Haralson of First Baptist Church  Austin, saw my potential as a teacher.  When Hal asked me to teach a girls junior high class,  I was quite reluctant at first.  Hal saw something in me that I could not see in myself.  Nevertheless, I decided to go for it.  The worst thing that could happen was that I taught for a semester, and if I didn’t enjoy it, or the girls and I weren’t connecting well, then I could say “I tried it”.  Not only did I enjoy teaching, but the rapport with the girls was strong, and I fell in love with teaching!

I continued to teach the junior high class while I was in college.  When I graduated, Hal decided that I was ready to teach the College Sunday School class.  Again, I was resistant because I didn’t think I would have any credibility being fresh out of college and teaching students who were basically my peers.   Hal was already teaching this class, so he invited me to co-teach with him.  That sounded safe enough, so I tried it.  I was Hal’s co-pilot for three months before he transitioned this class to me.  What can I say?  I loved every minute of it, and my peers appreciated what I had to offer.

I have taught for 30 years.  There have been many Sunday School classes, cell groups, and topical studies that I have led, and what excites me about this role is seeing lives being transformed as a work in progress.  I feel great joy and feel privileged knowing that God can use me to facilitate spiritual growth in another.  I desire to make a difference in someone else’s life, and teaching is the arena God allows me to do this.  None of us have arrived, but we are learners together as we apply the truths of Scripture in our relationships wherever we are.  I believe with all of my heart that my ability to teach is a gift from God, and it is His will for me to use it.  For 30 years God has shown me through the affirmations of those who have sat under my teaching that this is why I’m here.   Teaching is a passion, and I continue to find ways to sharpen my skills on a regular basis.  I tried to audit a preaching and teaching class at Austin Seminary, but they didn’t admit any auditors.  However, I found the course syllabus online including the books for the class and the reading schedule.  I studied independently reading the books according to the weekly assignments.  I especially loved the book Preaching and Teaching, by Warren Wiersbe, which taught me the importance of mastering metaphors.

You can imagine the depth of disappointment I will feel if this class doesn’t develop and no women show up.  However, at a higher level, I will understand that a sovereign God must have another place in mind for me to teach, and my job is to keep “going” until I discover where He really wants me.  (See my last post “Go Until You Hear No” to appreciate my need to keep “going”.)  On the other hand, if this class  takes off, you can imagine the thrill of seeing God’s hand in allowing me a permanent teaching ministry where my teaching gift can be used for His glory.  I already have a rough outline of what I will teach and look forward to building incarnational community among women. 

I would be blessed if you would commit to pray in agreement with me that the Lord will fill this class with many women.  Please pray that I will always be yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit who faithfully leads me into His Truth and to communicate God’s Word in an engaging and effective way that draws people to Jesus Christ.  I am looking forward to May 15^th with great anticipation of what God is up to in my life.  Teaching is why I’m here.  The question is where.

Blessings,

Lee Ann

The reason you are seeing me on Wordpress is because I desire to share my spiritual journey with Christ so that God can use these reflections to bless and encourage others.   I, like many, have taken the plunge to join others who want to stay more connected with their family and friends via Facebook, and I have journaled these reflections to family and friends, but they are the only ones who can read it.  This is frustrating to me, so I have created this account for anyone who wants to follow my life journey and how Christ makes a difference in my life without having to join Facebook.  Because we are biblically mandated to connect with others, I think it is worthy to try blogging through WordPress.  Because technology has advanced our way of connecting with others, I am “test driving” this to see if the Lord wants to use my writings with a wider audience. 

One of my spiritual growth steps to which I am committed is to develop a deeper, more intimate love relationship with God through Christ Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.  What I have observed is that how I do my relationship with friends is pretty indicative as to how I do my relationship with God.  I can spend a lot of time with God and people and still maintain a surface level of interaction.  I probably have a masters degree in “Speaking in Formulas”, e.g. “Hi, how are you? Fine, thank you.”  I have honed the skill of keeping things surface except with a handful of people I really trust.  Accordingly, the easy thing for me to do is to just report the facts of what is happening in my life, e.g.  “my cats are trying to leave hairballs” and then describe the hairball launch sequence in detail and how I try to get the cats to leave their “gift” in a less conspicuous place while they are still in the hacking stage.  Instead I want to share the emotional side of life circumstances and events, and more importantly, the spiritual side of them.  So, Wordpress is going to be my venue to change how I connect with you.  Thus, the goal is to use my blog to express my spiritual journey and how God is showing up in my life through the events and happenings that I will share. 

Having just shared the above, I am not expecting that everyone who reads these reflections will be interested in this level of sharing.  Trust me, I understand.  I have no idea if the Lord wants to use this or not, but the only way to know is to risk with Him and see what happens.  The downside risk for me is that by sharing my spiritual journey with you, some of you may label me as trying to be “holier than thou”, which is not the case at all.  If I am truly honest in my writings, you will see struggles along with joys just like the rest of you.  The upside risk for me is that God can use today’s technology and what I share to have an eternal impact on those who read it.  Accordingly, I will be transferring  all of my writings from Facebook to WordPress so that they are available here. If it draws you closer to God, then something powerful has happened and you have been blessed, which is ultimately what I desire for you.  If I can be of help in your journey, please feel free to comment on my writings and ask questions.

Blessings,

Lee Ann