In The Company of My Sisters

[virtue 77]

ummm, la francais....no comprende . hablo espanol, pequito...ok...now that we have established the various languages we can all speak, lol....lets get this post back in the company of ALL our sisters...including those who only speak english and/or ebonics... ;D

By the way...what were yall french speakers talking about???

[J13578]

We were talking about our respective current locations and possibly, some day, meeting in France and eating "crêpes". Nothing really highly spiritual. I got carried away in my native language.
There must be a deep truth in there, since we know what happened with the Babel tower and languages... Communication, understanding, one accord, sisterhood

[keita]

I have to admit that one of the things I most enjoy is the unpredictability and wonderful surprises that can happen...

"In the Company of My Sisters"!

...There must be a deep truth in there, since we know what happened with the Babel tower and languages... Communication, understanding, one accord, sisterhood

Amen, Lilah!

I was also (quite pleasantly ) reminded that language is just one of the MANY things that can divide us as women. So consider that barrier to now be BROKEN in this place!!!

[J13578]

I'll behave... It was fun and not meant to keep anything from our sisters...
It did put the spotlight on language barrier and maybe there are different types of that barrier.

Beulah, yes, Nice is worth the trip but I suggest you wait a little bit: they are building a tramway network and some areas look like a war zone... Only the seafront is untouched, basically.
Je déménage pour des raisons personnelles et professionnelles. Nous avons déjà des amis là-bas, ma fille pourra poursuivre ses études plus facilement et j'ai déjà des opportunités professionnelles. Nous serons près de Bristol, à Weston Super Mare. Voilà, maintenant, tu sais tout!
And now, for real: at least in French...

[J13578]

Amen, Keita...

One thing I noticed is that often two persons are saying basically the same thing, only with different words, and actually end up being at odds... I do believe in good communications, yet I always fail to understand what causes the "static" in cases like this.
Is it only wanting to have the last word at all cost?
Is it simply being competitive and assertive? Most of all, is it worth it?
Can't we channel all that energy in a more positive way? How?
Is it fear of letting the guard down and being vulnerable?

[Beulah5]

Curiousity killed the cat!!!

I was having so much fun Sister Killjoys ;D ;D ;D

Mon Dieu!!

[keita]

beulah5 said:

Curiousity killed the cat!!!

...and satisfaction brought him back! ;D

I was having so much fun Sister Killjoys ;D ;D ;D

Mon Dieu!!

LOL!

[J13578]

Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.

Antoine de St Exupéry

[keita]

"The fact that I am a woman does not make me a diffferent kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman."

--Elisabeth Elliot

[endure nsi]

Alright! I can dig on that

"The fact that I am a woman does not make me a diffferent kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman."

[nina]

Just sharing....

These Things I Bring
By Jerry Farris

I bring to You,



These feet of mine -

Broken, hurtful,

Yet willing to walk to You.



I bring to You,

My weakened legs -

Though muscles wane,

They are ready to carry me

to Your door.



I bring to You,

A body, failing daily;

Inside beats a heart,

Filled with love for You.





I bring to You,

A voice for singing;

For Your praises are

Most worthy to be heard.





I bring to You,

A mind to fill –

That in its knowledge,

Wisdom may rule.





All these things I give to You,

For You first gave them to me.

I offer them in humility;

Asking that You use them in a way

That serves Your purpose.





Of all these things I offer one more

My spirit;

That by serving others,

I may serve You also.





My selfish sacrifice then,

Is me….

To You.

[nina]

Hannah's prayer:

Chana's Prayer
By Chava Binder

I have been thinking about Chana and her prayer. It is fascinating from so many aspects, especially for all of us who struggle with prayer, each in our own way.

Chana cried out to her Creator because she hadn’t been able to conceive. She cried, she wailed, silently, but until she would be heard. From the outside she appeared to be drunk for only her lips were moving but she made no sound.

When confronted by the High Priest she explained that she was far from drunk. "No my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before God."

It was her barrenness that brought about her prayer. In due time, Chana gave birth to a son and named him Samuel. "I have asked him (borrowed him) from God."

We speak so much about barrenness. What does it mean? Could it be that we are pregnant with our barrenness? Can we gestate barrenness? Does it give birth to something, does it abort? What part of us is it really, and how do we nurture it and why?

Perhaps we must look at barrenness from the point of being pregnant, not biologically but spiritually pregnant. What is prayer? What grows inside of a person that she or he has to find a way to call out to God? If I would not have that “barrenness” inside me, where would the need come from to call out, to attach with such intensity?

So what is this barrenness? It certainly is not empty, and it certainly is not something that is outside of us. Only something flowing through one’s veins giving one life---only something so full can bring a person to cry out, to cleave to God, to push her words upward.

There is no emptiness here, and there is nothing quiet and sheepish either.

So, what are we barren with? What are we pregnant with ?
How is barrenness defined?

bar·ren (b²r“…n) adj. 1.a. Not producing offspring. b. Incapable of producing offspring. 2. Lacking vegetation, especially useful vegetation. 3. Unproductive of results or gains; unprofitable. 4. Devoid of something specified. 5. Lacking in liveliness or interest. --bar·ren n. A tract of unproductive land, often with a scrubby growth of trees. Often used in the plural. --bar“ren·ly adv. --bar“ren·ness n.

What are we speaking about, Chana's desire to have a child or perhaps her longing, her fullness that expressed itself through her prayers? Doesn't sound like anything unproductive to me.

We are all pregnant with something. We all have our longings. Can we be pregnant with pain? Can we be pregnant with happiness?
Only something so full can bring a person to cry out

preg·nant 1 adj. 1. Carrying developing offspring within the body. 2.a. Weighty or significant; full of meaning. b. Of great or potentially great import, implication, or moment. 3. Filled or fraught; replete. 4. Having a profusion of ideas; creative or inventive. 5. Producing results; fruitful. --preg“nant·ly adv. adj. Archaic. Convincing; cogent. Used of an argument or a proof.

Chana, what was it all about?
What do we learn about it, and after we go through the birth, what do we do with our offspring? What do we do with our longings when they are met, our pain when it is resolved, our ideas when they are fulfilled, and how do we mourn for those things that never got off the ground and why?

The image of Chana, bent over “mumbling like a drunk,” the image of Chana bent over, her lips hardly moving as the words seeped through them straight from her heart, this image has to make us have a visceral reaction.
A moment of such longing that your heart and mind and lips are one.
A moment where the conscious choice ceases to be yours, as your soul takes over to spill forth and “fling words towards Heaven.”

This was Chana’s barrenness. It was so full that it spilled throughout the Heavens.

[keita]

WOW! ;D

I came here to leave a message but just re-visiting this thread was a real blessing to me today... especially that Word on Hannah and barrenness. It truly gives greater depth to a portion of scripture which has been so large and much a part of my life and journey as a woman of God:

ISAIAH 54

1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. 2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. 7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. 9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. 10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. 13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. 15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. 16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

God Bless you, my sister, for deepening my understanding of why our God, whose thoughts and ways are not, but are indeed higher than ours, sees and declares "barrenness" as "something to sing about!"

[keita]

The Spirit of God says, "You are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses--the greats of yesterday that stood out amongst men, amongst royalty, and made a difference--they are surrounding you. For there was a sound in each one of their spirits when they faced the giants of their time--that sound exists in this generation of women," says the Lord of Hosts.

"This sound is a sound of tenderness; this sound is a sound of bold gentleness. This sound is a sound that has petrified the powers of hell, for this same sound existed within Esther. The same sound existed within Deborah. The same sound existed in Mary when the Rock came forth, and satan has watched the women of this generation and said 'no more,'" but the Spirit of God says, "they will arise, and when they arise, they will bring forth the Rock, Christ Jesus again!"
As a prophet, I have heard the sound--In this day, and in this year of acceleration--women suddenly accelerating and touching the untouchable, and reaching the unreachable. That's what I saw and God said, "Tell these women, you are the instigators and the initiators of this movement that is about to touch the entire earth."

"It has been some time now," says the Lord, "that I have focused My attention once again on the women to bring forth the Word--the Rock. It has been a while now, that I have looked for a sound to come from a place where women would arise not with temperament, but with character and with virtue. And a sound that would come from them for one reason, 'God, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And Lord, what You are dictating in Heaven right now, we want to perform on earth,' this is their prayer."

And God says, "There's been a sound that I've been waiting for, and this year was the year that I designated to bring forth women of great virtue and of great power. Some of you have been locked away; some of you have been bound. Some of you have been freed to the point of now understanding the bondage of others. But this is not the question at hand today."

The Spirit of God says, "Do you know that there is inside of you--about to be born that which has been there for a long time, for a long, long time," says the Lord. "And this time as women who worship come forth," God said, "there has been a quickening--something is moving inside the spiritual womb." Now God says, "This place has been transformed into a delivery room."

God says, "No, you will not walk from this place saying, 'I received much.' But you will walk from this place saying, 'I delivered something; I delivered something.' A delivery room, as you know, is a place of pain and a place of stress where there is blood," but God said, "in the midst of all of this, once the sound of life comes forth from the womb," God said, "something new, something fresh begins to take place in the atmosphere."

God said, "I'm looking to women again to bring forth and to birth what will change a generation. You have not gathered together in vain. What has happened, is you have brought forth and I hear the sound of a child being born. I hear the sound of a child being born. From your spiritual womb a movement shall take place," says the Lord, from this house.

[MsKayLander]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!