I don't believe in coincidences

Yep, this is true for RG. We don't believe in coincidences but in God things. We just like to call them "God stories". You know what I am talking about. The times when something happens and the world would say,"wow you are lucky!" but we say," wow we serve a mighty God". This has happened to us a lot lately but we want to share this one first and have more for later....

We met a girl at Impact named Alexandra. She went to our class and afterwards came to us and said she wrote poems and we might want to take a look. We did and this is what we found in her book:

Six of us sitting ‘round the circle,
Expressing all of our feelings.
Some tears mix with laughter,
And the mood lifts from gloom and doom
To happy and cool.
But everyone is being helped by this,
Understanding and knowing what they need to fix,
Or need to stop thinking of themselves,
As ugly, or fat.
Because we all think everyone’s beautiful,
And so does God.
So next time you have friend over,
Sit ‘round a circle and express your feelings.

Yep! This is what we read. We really were in shock. Did she know that we had 6 girls on our RG team at that time? Did she know we actually did sit and talk about this? Did she know our class was going to be about self image? NO, she didn't. Crazy, huh? So, we read more poems and all of them are great. We are going to start posting some, but for now this is the one we want you to hear. God does think you are beautiful. He knit you and created you just the way you are. Check out Psalm 139 if you don't believe us.

Thanks Alexandra Burton from North Caroline for sharing your talents!

We want to hear your "God stories", so tell us some!

Stay REAL!

Halfway

Real Girls is at Impact at David Lipscomb this year for the first time. We are loving it and enjoy seeing God at work here. The praise and worship time is great, and the singing is amazing. Our classes have been great and the girls are all really opening their hearts.

Here is a sneak peek at this class:

You knit me

So I praise

You found me

So I live!

Our class is based out of Psalm 139 and goes with the "hidden" theme of the week. We are putting a RG spin and working through our self image this week. Please let us know if you want to come by and see us. The more the merrier! Have a blessed week.

And as always.....stay REAL!

P2 (peer pressure)

- everyone's doing it

- me too!

- wait for me

- it can't be that bad

These are all things we catch ourselves sometimes saying, huh? Don't you wish you never felt pressure to be cool or fit in? It would be great if we could just be ourselves and not worry about what others think. I know I wish I could be more like that! In the New Testament we see many times how Paul was great at this. In 1 Thessalonians 2: 4 (in the Message) it says:

" Be assured that when we speak to you we're not after crowd approval- only after God approval."

WOW! If only it were that easy right? Well, it is that easy. Start praying that God gives you a heart to seek after His will and His will only. Pray that you will want to walk away from crowd approval and seek what is right. I hope we can become leaders and then eventually others will want to follow us. Maybe we can set a new "peer pressure" standard. I would love to see the COOL thing that others feel pressure to do become the RIGHT thing to do.

May we be REAL GIRLS seeking after God approval.

Stay REAL!

adrenaline rush!!!

I am sure many of you are getting excited about summer coming up. Trips, laying out, swimming, camps, and sleeping in! We just wanted to give you encouragement to finish out your school year strong.

“It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”
Hebrew 12:1-3 The Message

Try to embrace this scripture in every area of your life. And let our Savior’s story keep you going strong! Have you ever ran a race, had a big game or event and you get that nervous/excitement feeling? I love that!! I love the adrenaline rush! What Christ has done for us should give us that feeling! I pray for each of us that WE may have that adrenaline rush this week as we serve others around us.

Be a REBEL!

This past weekend we went on a Real Girls retreat and it was AWESOME! I wish all of you could have come. We will have another one, so make sure you join us.
The main theme for the weekend was Be a Rebel! We looked at what Romans 12:1-9 says "Do not conform...." We talked about ways that it is hard for teen girls not to conform and came up with BLT- the way we treat our Bodies, our Language and the way we spend our Time. Then we looked at the later part of that same chapter and spent some time looking at SET- Service, Encouragment, and Teaching. We then went and had some quiet time praying that God would show us what He wanted us to concentrate on. We split into the 3 groups- service, encouragment, and teaching. The service girls went and cleaned the BOYS bathhouse, what sweet servants and what an experience! The encouragers spent some time writing letters to 3 people, one of which was our RG compassion international girl from Honduras. Then the teaching group planned a closing devo talk for us to hear. Each of these groups did GREAT! We talked about doing each of these so much that you went home and shocked people. We want to be different than our world and we need to be a REBEL!
On top of all of this, we had a fabulous RG dance party complete with bedazzled glow in the dark bandanas, pink lights, and glow bracelets! Thanks to all of you girls for coming, we really enjoyed it!
If you are reading this and you went, you know the challenge. If you didn't make it, we want to challenge you to the RG Rebel Retreat challenge, so here it is- Take a facebook and texting fast for at least 24 hours and when you would normally spend that time texting or whatever you do on facebook, spend that time in prayer, journaling, or reading a study book. After you do this, please let us know how it goes! Let's stop conforming to our world and take part in God's world of being a TRUE follower of Him and let's start by spending as much time with Him as we do on these computers and phones. Now....GO!!!
Be a Rebel and Stay REAL!

RUN Sista' RUN!

Running is a huge part of my life right now. I am training for the half marathon here in Nashville in April. I also coach track. One of the REAL GIRLS team members runs track. Running is a huge part of my life! I love running. I never thought I would say that. It truly is one of the only skills from high school that I use every day. One thing I love about running is it gives me time to spend just thinking. Breathing hard and hearing my footsteps, I just have time to myself. I love the "runners high"- that feeling of wow, I cannot believe I just did that! If you have ever experienced this, you know what I am talking about.
Running is such a great example of our Christian walk. Hebrews 12:1 says:

"...let us run with persevance the race marked out for us!"

When you are given a certain distance to run, you just run. You don't quit. You run until you are done. This is our walk with Christ. We just RUN! Just keep going, don't quit! Run hard. Run fast. Just run. Yes, you will get tired. You will take water breaks, and you will need others to cheer you on. But what a great feeling when you cross the finish line!

As Dory on Finding Nemo says......"just keep swimming."

Run, REAL GIRLS, RUN!

We love you and pray for all of you as you run this race! Stay REAL!

Where to begin?

That is the question for this blog. After this amazing weekend in Gatlinburg at Winterfest, we really don't know where to begin. We won't bore you with every detail but we do want to share some of our highlights over the weekend so you can see how God was at work in Gatlinburg this weekend. Some of the cool REAL GIRLS moments included:
- a girl named Sarah from Germany who wanted to know how to go back home and share Christianity with her friends there.
- meeting Taylor and Tiffany and seeing what is in store for them (you go girl!)
- finally getting to meet Jenna after months of emailing! can't wait till May!
- getting to see our home youth groups......we love Tusculum, Otter Creek and Rural Hill!
- a sweet girl named Kelsey coming by our booth and teaching us that you don't have to see with your eyes to really SEE!
- watching our huge support team work so hard.....thanks parents!
- hugging a mother who lost her daughter just 10 weeks ago and being amazed at the strength God has given her.
- meeting Zach Hunter and hearing about what God is doing through his ministry Loose Change to Loosen Chains.
- Drew and Dave have a cool ministry YEE. And they make cool videos!
Wow, what a weekend we had! For those of you who joined us there it was great to see you. If you were unable to join us, we missed you and look forward to seeing you soon. God is doing amazing things through RG and we can't wait to see what HE has in store next. Thanks for being a part of this ministry with us!
And don't forget to L1 and L2. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." Do these and the rest falls into place.
Thanks Dudley, Johnny, Chad, Jeff, Carla, and the rest of the Winterfest Team for this weekend!
Stay REAL!