Mean girls and the like

If you've never had the pure pleasure that comes hand-in-hand with a Beth Moore Bible study, here is one to get you sarted... Esther - It's hard being a woman. If you are familiar with Beth - get ready because she is absolutely hilarious in this one.

It's been a while since I've done a study with any of my close friends. So it was a treat this past Tuesday morning to sit side by side with my friend Madonna. This weeks topic was "mean girls". I know that this will probably come as a shock to at least one person reading this... but I have been "the mean girl" MORE THAN ONCE in my lifetime.
As Beth talked about reasons that people were mean, I started thinking about the mean people that I knew since I was over my mean season. One of the questions she asked was "who is your rival?" Well, as far as I know - I don't have one. Then she started talking about those insecurities that lie at the heart of most meanness. Insecurities?

Oh, that hurt. I was reminded of a time when there was this woman in my Sunday School class. She thought she was something. All pretty and thin and blond. Perfect husband, perfect children... and on and on it went. You know the type. I would call her to try and enlist her help with GA's, and without even praying about it she told me "no". Not once, but twice! Well who did she think she was anyway?
Who knew God had told her to pray for me? The woman with the attitude. And pray she did. Then one day she came to me and handed me this scarlet cord. She had felt led to go to a conference, and while she was there, she knew without a doubt that she was there to stand in the gap for me. The cord was for my son PJ. That was back at the height of our discovering an out of control drug problem. As you can imagine, my heart began to melt. As I got to know more about her, I realized that God had called her into a season of prayer and not a time of activity (like GA's). As the days and weeks passed, our friendship grew.
Sitting there this week and listening to Beth talk about insecurities and rivals... I just about laughed out loud at the irony of it all. Yes, once upon a time I had a rival. I was insecure. That was then... now I'm blessed to be sitting by her during the Bible study and being glad that God told her to pray and she did ... like it or not! ! !
Moral of the story... who is your rival? Watch out she may become one of the best friends you've ever had!