This past Tuesday was our monthly Mentoring Moments women's meeting at church. We usually end up splitting up into small groups for discussions at some point; this month we actually did a quick little study and then had to present our findings to the group.
In my group were two ladies that I've recently become acquainted with and four first year Huntsville Master's Commission girls.
We had a ball.
Our passage was Proverbs 9:1 - 9: (NIV)
Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city. "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. "Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding. Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will ove you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning."
Just for discussion, we took the seven pillars mentioned in verse 1 to be the things wisdom did in the next few verses.
1)prepared her meat and wine
2)set her table
3)sent out her maids
4)calls from the highest point of the city
5)She speaks to those who lack judgment
6)She does not correct fools or wicked people
7)She corrects and teaches the wise.
Each group (there were 8 groups) was to determine a modern day application for each of those seven things and, after about 15 minutes of discussion, we each selected a spokesperson to present our applications to the whole group.
Can I just say that 15 minutes is a really skimpy amount of time? So we had ideas flying around our group...some were from the 'Moms' in the group, others were from the young ladies. When the ideas were presented, it was cool to see that some folks had taken completely different approaches...one group (in which our children's pastor was the spokesperson) took the approach of mom feeding and teaching her children, which was really cool. It was at least very uniform all the way through! Ours rather jumped around, but here's what we came up with...a woman of wisdom will:
) (food -nourishes the soul/body…wine - new wine of the Spirit - nourishes the spirit) She makes preparation; nourishes herself in preparation for nourishing others
2) She sets the atmosphere…walks in that atmosphere, brings His fragrance wherever she goes, walking in His purpose
3) She disciples those who are younger (Titus 2), training them up and delegating tasks; sending them out into the world to serve
4) Seated in the heavenly realms, in the secret place of the Most High, she seeks God's perspective and interceeds, making the declaration over her city
5) She speaks words seasoned w/salt to those who have no knowledge without passing judgment upon them
6) She doesn't 'cast her pearls before swine' -- she uses discernment not to give people truth they can't handle
7) She's real and can be trusted to speak the truth to those around her; she has strength and wisdom and she's not afraid to offer it to her peers.
It was so cool to get the very varied responses...and to see how much we saw the same way!
I love those monthly meetings... ;)
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