OBA Women's Ministry

06/01/2025

Please make plans to attend our annual Ladies' Day event. We are so excited about what God has in store!

06/13/2024

06/08/2024

I noticed that a couple of my potatoes from the grocery store - one blue, and one gold - were growing eyes. So hubby and I planted them in a big pot, not knowing if they would grow. But hoping . . .

Lately, our deck has turned into the wild kingdom with rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, and birds sniffing, digging, and pecking at everything. I figured they were going to go after those potatoes for sure. We placed netting and a grill on top of the pot to keep them from being eaten before they even had a chance to send up shoots.

My husband went to check on them the other day and came inside looking dejected. "I have to wash that netting. The birds have been aiming right on top."

Me: "But did you look past that inside the pot?"

Hubby: "No. I was too busy looking at the mess."

He was so focused on the bird's mess that he didn't even see what was going on inside the pot. Because, . . . well, see for yourself. Both the potato plants have taken off!

I was thinking how life is like this. How so often our eyes are snagged on the doo doo around us, and how easy it is not to look past that into the deeper blessings that are growing just under that mess.

This world will come with more mess than we know what to do with. You can't mess-proof life. It doesn't matter how many nets and grills you devise around yourself and your loved ones, the messes will arrive from a direction you may not have even expected. The secret is to look past the mess. Look deeper. And find the blessing.

05/22/2024

05/17/2024

Wednesday’s Wisdom

05/16/2024

". . . If the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us?"

Gideon isn't the only one who asks this question. How do you square the goodness of God with the "all this" of our lives? Of this world?

God doesn't answer Gideon's why. Not one word. Instead, he tells little Gideon who feels scared and insecure: "Go in this might of yours and save . . ."

In this might of yours. My dear, did you know God has given you a might? At your most insecure, at your weakest hour, at your most vulnerable moment, you possess a might. The power of the Spirit in you, the activation of your faith as it works through your particular gifting . . . all this gives birth to a might that is unique to you.

Here is the miracle: you might be feeling utterly fragile. But in this very place, you have a might that is all yours, like a ring of mountains that surrounds a vulnerable valley.

Go today in this might of yours.

05/04/2024

By his mid-thirties, King David was a wealthy man. He had lots of toys, a cushy palace, pretty clothes, shiny baubles. He said, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” (Psalm 16:6) But he said a strange thing. He said, “The LORD is my chosen portion”. (Psalm 16:5) He didn’t choose the pleasant things, the nice things, the fun things. He chose God as his portion.

But what does that mean, exactly? What does “portion” mean in the biblical sense?

Here is a very quick highlight of a few of my findings: God refers to the land he set aside for His people as “portion”. He also refers to food and the daily provisions of life as portion. In another context, portion could also mean your “lot” – the outcome or the destiny of someone’s life. Their future.

If you were to put all of these concepts together, what you discover is that when, like David you choose God as your portion, what you are saying is that God is your provision. He is the sufficiency for your day and for your life. He is your security. God is your future and your fortune. God will be enough to satisfy your desires and to fill you with good things. He’s enough physically and emotionally.

God is your portion. That’s the promise you can hold on to today, wherever you are.

When I told hubby about my research, he prayed the most powerful prayer, which I now want to pray over you: God help us to be confident in our portion. Help us to be satisfied and content with our portion. Help us to trust that our portion will be there today and always. Help us not be anxious about our portion, but know that You have set it aside for us. Help us to be humble and patient even when we don’t understand Your plan so that we know your portion for us is good. God, You are Yourself my portion today. And You are enough.

Beloved, as you go through your week, may you walk in the joy of your beautiful portion.

A blessed National Day of Prayer to all my Friends in the US!