The Andersons

Cheese Dip and Church Ladies - Session One

Well we kicked off our summer Bible study with three of us here at my house on Tuesday night. We had some great food--Amanda, that queso rocked--and some great conversation! We reviewed our memory verse for the summer and decided we couldn't hang with the competition for the best memorization idea. Our best idea was to put it to the tune of the Barney theme song because Kristi said she heard once that the tune helps developmentally delayed kids learn (leave it to two speech therapist-one turned behavioral interventionist-and a physical therapist to come up with that one).

We discussed our personal struggles with being closer to God and realized that many of our struggles come from our deep history in religion. "Do I fully believe God is capable?"..... "Do I compartmentalize my faith?"........ "Am I close to God, or am I just going through the motions?"....... "How do I share, and teach, and give without becoming bogged down in it all?" Who knew that growing up in religion could be so hard? Correct me if I am wrong, ladies, but I feel that although we are all from different "seasons" of our lives, it is evident that our struggles are common. We are each modern women, unable to accept the "church lady" identity, but hungry for a closer walk with God and understanding our place in the religious world.

I did my first two days of homework and am excited to start discussion on what our modern day idols are. It was interesting to me to realize that not all of these idols have to be negative things. I've also always pictured "idols" as being tangible, but in our study, they are described as something operating as our god..... something we want "too much". It can be a physical object or a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an image, an idea, a pleasure, or a hero. What are some things that you feel can hold us captive on this earth?