Category: Bright Lights Local Group

Isn’t spring great?!

At Bright Lights on Monday night, two leaders in our group shared with the girls about how the Lord had been working in their lives… Elyssa shared her courtship and engagement story and Amy shared about her recent missions trip to Peru. Both of their stories were very exciting and the girls seemed to really enjoy it. Both Elyssa and Amy stressed to the girls the importance of preparing and seeking the Lord at home.

We invited all the dads to come with their daughters to Bright Lights last night. We all enjoyed having the dads there. 🙂 We showed a video called The Return of the Daughters. This professionally made documentary addresses the God-given role of young ladies, gives vision for how girls can use their single years for the Lord, and shows in a beautiful way the blessings and benefits that come when a young lady honors her father and seeks to make him successful. The video was very well received, and my dad said that the 30+ fathers who were there had a good time of sharing afterwards while all of us girls divided into discussion groups downstairs. It created some special fellowship to have a whole group of like-minded fathers watching it together with their daughters. It’s exciting and encouraging to see many strong families in our community.

For an activity, all the dads had to draw a picture (with their daughter’s verbal help) of something related to their occupation. We taped them up on the wall afterwards for everyone to look at. It was funny to see the little cartoons they all came up with.

Last night at Bright Lights Sarah taught the younger girls downstairs on “truthfulness” while the older girls watched a video upstairs called “Why I choose to believe the Bible”. It refuted many of the common modern arguments regarding the reliability and trustworthiness of Scripture. We all enjoyed it a lot.

For our activity last night, we divided into teams and had each team nominate a candidate to run for the pretend role of “chef for the year”. Then we all listened and laughed as each candidate gave a speech on why everyone should vote for them. Many of the tactics they tried to use sounded pretty familiar to the presidential candidates we’ve been listening to recently… 🙂 We tallied up the votes and announced the winners by percentages at the end of the night.

Monday nights are our “Bright Lights Nights” here in town. We meet at our church about twice a month. One reason I like Bright Lights here in town is because we can see the girls on a regular basis and watch them grow in maturity and in their walk with the Lord. As the Lord works in their hearts, it comes out in their bright countenances as well as in the insightful comments they make and good questions they ask!

Some girls are still coming who came to the very first Bright Lights meeting 11 years ago, so we have quite an age span now.

Last night after our singing time, Sarah taught the younger girls down stairs on “Rebekah” from Genesis while the older girls did a study of spiritual gifts (from Romans 12) upstairs. After our lesson time, we always divide up into small groups (led by the older girls) for discussions and activities. And then, of course, we have snacks and fellowship. 🙂

Stephen’s group, the Light Shop meets at a different church a few minutes away. I’d post pictures of that, too, but unfortunately I’m never able to get there because of Bright Lights going on simulaneously. Maybe next time I’ll send my camera along with Dad. I hear they do activities that are much crazier then what we girls do. Last night they had some kind of a water war with hoses and ropes and milk jugs…I missed what the main point to the game was, but apparently they got drenched and they had lots of fun.

Yesterday morning about 30 girls ages 13 and up from our local Bright Lights group gathered in a quiet park outside of town to spend the day seeking God. We had lots of time set aside for individual Bible study and prayer, and it was so refreshing to “come away” to a quiet place in the park to be alone with the Lord. We each found our own grassy area where we laid our blanket and followed outlines Sarah had given us…studying Psalm 119 and various New Testament passages, memorizing, self-examination before the Lord, studying various “hearts” in Scripture, studying the names of God, and personal prayer and worship.

We also came together as a group several times for sharing, (both about what God was teaching us and about how many daddy-long legs crawled unto our blanket in the last hour…), singing, lunch, and ultimate frisbee.

Almost everyone shared special verses that the Lord had given them during their time alone, and it was encouraging to hear many of the girls share the same report: how they had been impressed with the desire to seek the Lord not partially, but completely – with all their heart.

We also divided into smaller groups for prayer and for one-on-one sharing. We concluded with a pizza party in our church basement. It was a great day!