I am so thankful that I can be complete in Christ.
By God's grace, I hope to use this blog to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ in pursuing Godliness, Holiness, and Radiant Purity! :D

Friday, January 7, 2011

Letter to class participants and parents

Dear Radiant Purity class girls and Parents,


First of all, I want to let you know what a privilege and a blessing it is to have this amazing opportunity to teach from God's word and to share what He has laid on my heart with these young ladies.  I have had a burden and desire from the Lord to lead a class like this for a while now and am so grateful for this opportunity!

The book we will be going through is called Before You Meet Prince Charming.  Now you might be wondering what we will be going over and if this is appropriate for your younger girls.  In my opinion, it couldn't be more appropriate!  I wish I would have had this book when I was as young as 10 or 11.  It would have probably helped me have much purer thoughts. This is the only book that I know of on this subject that I would whole-heartedly recommend to girls of all ages.  I love it because it doesn't go into detail about mistakes made my others, but the whole book encourages pure thinking by helping us to keep our mind on Christ and on what He desires for us.


Here is a description of the book from the author's website, www.radiantpurity.com

This guide to radiant purity combines the thoughts and events in the life of a young princess with solid, clear teaching of Biblical convictions that young ladies today need to grasp. Through a captivating fairy tale, modern day examples, practical instruction and abundant humor, Sarah Mally challenges young ladies to turn to the Lord for fulfillment, to guard their hearts and minds, to identify and avoid the world’s thinking and to shine brightly in this generation.

This book offers biblical answers to everyday questions and deep life struggles. It includes many practical tips for girls such as how to guard your heart when you have a crush, being wise in Internet usage, how to strengthen relationships with parents, and how to use your single years wisely.
 
The author is Sarah Mally (a very godly young lady and personal friend of mine.)

Suggested for young ladies ages 12 and up.

Table of Contents:
Desire the Very Best Marriage
Dangers with the Dating System
Guard Your Heart
Could He Be the One?
Romantic Dreams
When God Says Wait
How Parents Can Help
Have a Life Purpose Bigger than Marriage
Dreams Must Die
Reserved for One
Delighting in the Lord
Know that God Arranges Marriages

Endorsements:

“Sarah Mally is a ‘bright light’ in our day—a winsome, counter-cultural young woman with a passion for Christ and for truth.”
– Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Revive our Hearts

“Every young lady desiring to be married one day must read this book! It will challenge you; it will stir you; it will delight you! Most importantly, it will help you practically prepare for one of the most important decisions of your life. In Before You Meet Prince Charming, Sarah Mally tackles the most critical subject for single women and offers insightful counsel with a wonderful sense of humor. I believe this will be a great encouragement to princesses everywhere!
– Beall Phillips Wife of Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum

For more endorsements you can go to  http://tomorrowsforefathers.pinnaclecart.com/biblical-teaching/before-you-meet-prince-charming/


So why am I teaching this class?  What's the point?  And what are we trying to accomplish?

This class is not all about Prince Charming.  Before we even start thinking about young men and our future, we need to consider some more foundational  things. 

Here are some goals that I have for the class:

 1.  To know God and His Word better so we know what He expects of us. 
I'm not going to be teaching a list of man-made rules and wise guidelines.  I will try to base every single thing I teach on Scripture.

2.  To let what we learn about God transform our hearts and minds so that we will begin to be changed into His image in the spirit of Rom. 12:2

3.  To begin to really pursue holiness and learn what it is.

4.  To encourage the girls to be bright lights for Christ.  To be different from the world so that they glorify and rightfully represent their Heavenly father.

5.  For me personally, I'm teaching this class in obedience to the great commission, to make disciples of all nations, teaching them what Christ taught his disciples. 

6.  To magnify the Lord, to make Him big in the eyes of the girls and to testify of His faithfulness and goodness in my own life.


What this class is NOT for:

Not to learn how to survive dating as we know it today.  This is not even to learn how to do "Christian" dating.  Though it might seem like it at first with a title like Before You Meet Prince Charming, this is not all about guys and relationships or romance or things like that.  Though learning how to relate to young men will definitely be a part of it, that is certainly not the main point of the class.  The point is to focus on purity and holiness of the heart, developing a knowledge and understanding of God's commandments, and developing love and right view of God so that we desire to do what pleases Him.  Once that's taken care of, everything else, including our attitude toward young men will fall into place. 


Here's what the structure of a typical class is going to be like:

1.   I'm going to share what God's Word says.  I could talk all day but it wouldn't do any real good because it's just my words. 

2.  We're going to go though the book and talk about it and explain what it says and answer questions about it.

3.  I would also like for us all to share spiritual prayer requests and talk about what the Lord is doing in our lives.

4.  Every week or so we will try to learn a new song and sing it in class.

5.   I'm going to share from my personal testimony of God's faithfulness in my life and from my various experiences.

6.   I'm going to share about friends of mine and what their single life and/or courtship has looked like and my thoughts on it.


What to bring:  I would like for the girls to bring their Bibles to class.  We will probably be looking up and reading verses.  I would also like them to bring a notebook as I have specific things I would like them to write down. 

By the way, I'm going to be posting most of my "lesson" each week on my blog, completeinthee-tiff.blogspot.com, so you are more than welcome to read it and follow along with what we're going over.  This will also be helpful if you can't make it to class one week.  Feel free to email me with any questions at taclovestoclog@gmail.com.

 If you expect to grow or change any, you can't just attend class once a week.  You have to pursue God at home wherever you are throughout the week.  If you truly desire to grow closer to God and to get the most out of this class, I suggest you do the following:

1. In order to learn how to live a life that pleases God and gives Him the most glory, you must listen to what He says.  I would like for the girls to read the Bible regularly.  However, I'm not saying "You must read your Bible this week or else!"  I would never want to make Bible-reading a chore.  It has to be something you want to do.  

2.  I would like for the girls to start a prayer journal if they haven't already.  This has been a wonderful help to me in growing closer to the Lord.  I would like for them to try to write in it as consistently as they can throughout the week. 

3.   Read a chapter of Before You Meet Prince Charming.  Though we are going through this book in the class, don't let it take first place over your Bible reading and prayer.

3.  We will usually have at least one memory verse every week, so it will be their responsibility to learn that.

This is such a humbling thing and a great honor.  I become more aware of my own weaknesses and inadequacies every day the more humbled I am that the Lord would give me such an amazing opportunity and great responsibility as this!  I would appreciate your prayers for the class and for me.  I'm encouraging girls to pursue God's plan for them instead of their own.  Satan hates God's plan and will do everything he can to thwart it.  Thanks for your prayers!

If you have any questions for me about anything whatsoever, please feel free to give me a call at (770)-922-9124 or email me at any time. 

I'm so excited to see what God's going to do with this!  To Him be all the glory!


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