Simple Compassion Study Chapters 1-5

When I did a book review for, "Simple Compassion" by Keri Wyatt Kent, I determined that God was calling me to read this book in 2010. A friend of mine was eager to read it as well and we sent out some emails to find other women interested in studying this topic.

We began very last minute in early January and have met every other week. We decided to discuss two chapters at a time because we are meeting every other week. The book is meant to be done one chapter each week through the course of the year. As moms of little ones, we just can't meet every week, so this has been a great solution.

God put together a very interesting group of women. Not everyone knows one another, but it has worked out beautifully. I truly believe that God always brings the people that He wants there. Many women that we invited weren't able to join in and it boiled down to 7 of us. We range from 33 to 50-something. We all have little ones at home, with our oldest children still in elementary school. We represent all sorts of different denominations, but are all passionate about Jesus! And the group has been able to open up in a deep and meaningful way very quickly!

Now, these first few chapters didn't provide a lot of good discussion for our particular group. The author is laying the groundwork for the rest of the book, making sure that women know their value.

She continually emphasized the fact that women are valuable in our society and in churches, a little too much for us. We just happen to be a group of pretty confident women who haven't had to "fight" to be valued. Maybe it is a product of where we live and how we were raised.

In fact, Chapter three talked a lot about a quote from Marianne Williamson about being afraid of how powerful you truly are. Most of us didn't relate to that well. We don't really struggle with "playing small". So we had a discussion about how some of us felt we had to downplay ourselves in family situations or certain friend groups for various reasons, but we didn't really find an overwhelming "little 'ole me" syndrome to be an issue in our group.

Clearly, the author has encountered church groups and individual women who don't feel valued or able to contribute. These chapters were aimed at denouncing that lie.

Chapter 5 was really were the book seemed to begin for me, and for most of the group. This chapter addressed our feelings of inadequacy and the fear that we aren't going to be able to handle the situations we are dealt.

We had to spend some time sharing with other group members the giftedness that we saw in their lives. It was so uplifting and encouraging. Seriously. I went home feeling like "my cup had been filled" for the week!

According to these women, some of my giftings from God:

friendship, leadership, seeking truth, initiator, wisdom "beyond years", accepting people where they are and gently nudging them to the next level, strength of character and mind, willing to extend self

Wow. I was completely humbled and encouraged. Everyone went home with a list of encouragement from that night. And we grew as a group as we invested in sharing with one another.

We also discussed contentment that night, but I'll have more on that later...