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Driving north on Highway 1, also known as Pacific Coast Highway, my friend Mandy asked what I was most enjoying along the drive. Of course, the Pacific Ocean is beautiful, but I was also really enjoying all the flowers in bloom. She responded that she had never paid attention to the flowers, but looked more in the shops along the road. “It’s funny how we all see different things when we’re looking in the same place.” She continued, “Before having my oldest daughter, I would’ve never thought to look for mermaids, but that’s what she told her younger sister to look for during a recent trip we made along this same highway.”

Looking for mermaids. We all see things differently.

I encourage you to look for mermaids today, to see something through someone else’s eyes and appreciate the value of their perspective—one of the many blessings of small groups.

There is greater value as part of a whole than as an individual.

Or as Aristotle put it, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

But I think the best is how Solomon expressed this wisdom, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.

9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

#IronRoseSisterMinistries #smallgroups #community #mermaids

• guest writer
• small groups

One night, in a small-group Bible study, I shared a lesson with Hispanic sisters at a church in Houston. The class was about truth and lies and contained some of the same material that would later be included in Who Has the Last Word?.

The class was well received and at the end, I asked each of the ladies to partner with the woman next to her and share a lie of Satan she personally battles. They were also instructed to find a verse in the Bible that spoke a truth to cut through that lie, just like in the Lie/Truth Chart. It was beautiful to see them sharing and flipping through their Bibles.

As they were finishing up, two women excitedly asked me to come over and talk with them. They just had to share with me that they battle the exact same lie: that they don't have time to read their Bibles! They were able to encourage each other mutually in the truth and promises of Scripture. Phone numbers were exchanged so that they could continue to encourage each other during the week. Before I walked away, they read me the verse that gave them so much hope and joy—the truth that cut through Satan's lie and gave God the last word in their lives:

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Josh. 1:7-8)

God gave Joshua a beautiful reminder for the third time in that chapter, “Be strong and very courageous.” May God continue to bless each of us with encouraging reminders, as He did for those two ladies that evening. And may He continue to use Iron Rose Sister Ministries to equip, inspire, and empower women in their relationship with God and others.

My question for you today: Would those ladies have been impacted as greatly from that verse and convicted in the lie if they had been doing it alone?

Last month, we looked at lies and truth through the book Who Has the Last Word? Yet the greater value of that study comes in the context of small groups.

This month, as many prepare for their fall Bible studies, we will look at small groups: the blessings, the challenges, and the biblical support for how to do them well.

#IronRoseSister #smallgroups #community #truth