The Lily Letters

Dear God, Let our leadership in SAO be united so that our sisters and their surrounding communities receive an overflowing blessing. Let our unity bring life, refreshment, and spiritual nourishment to our chapters so that those surrounding our campuses may know Jesus Christ and receive the blessings of Eternal Life. We reject comparing our gifts both enviously and pridefully, and we accept working towards unity in our faith and in the knowledge of you so that we become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. We want to use our gifts to serve the church of Christ just as the parts of the human body work together. Each of our gifts comes from you rather than ourselves. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

One Body (Unity): We Belong to Each Other Ephesians 3:6 (NIV) This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. July Verse: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.”- 1 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV) – This month's theme is based on being part of the Body of Christ and walking together in unity, rather than division. Just as the human anatomy works along with each other, we each have a gift that God gives us to work together to help spread the gospel. If we were to look at 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, we would see that each part of the Body of Christ is important. This calls for us to remove envy and pride and to stick to the gifts that God has given to us. I remember going to see my service chair after attending a Christian concert the night before (the same night when I did 16 crunches at a Panera for Crunch-a-...

I’m sure you’ve all heard this before, but we are all children of God. But have you heard that we are the co-heirs with Christ? This is a phrase that I was not super familiar with before writing this post. I have always heard that I am a child of God, and I have been proud to be a child of God, but being called a co-heir with Christ was new. In simple terms, it means that all of us are adopted children of God. We have been fully welcomed into His family, and we are entitled to a share in Jesus’s inheritance of eternal glory, salvation, and blessings. This inheritance is not like the physical inheritance you may receive after a loved one passes, and it is worth much, much more. Romans 8:16-17 says, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” But what, exactly, do we inherit? 1 Peter 1:4 says, “To an i...

Monthly Theme: Co-Heirs (Belonging): I belong in God's Family Starting Verses: Ephesians 3:6 “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” 1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” There are such cool things to be pointed out in Ephesians 3:6 about who God’s people are and what they receive. This is something we’ll get to dive deeper into as the months of the school year go by, but as we get started and as we settle into that summer, post-convention rhythm- I’d love for us to start to focus in on the idea that we are called “heirs” or children of God as mentioned in 1 John 3:1. At first thought, I think of my classroom of students and how I consider that a sort of family while at the school house. Students and teachers support each other, grow together, laugh, celebrate ea...

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 13 Hands-down, this might be my favorite passage in the Bible. I know some people find it cliche or overused or taken out of context, but I sincerely believe that you cannot emphasize love enough in a world like the one we’re living in today. Love is everything, and I think Paul does such an excellent job of reminding us why. For a bit of context, in case you may not know or remember, Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, because they were hindering their own mission after becoming obsessed with flashy spiritual gifts, acting selfishly, and becoming divided. With this specific part of the letter, Paul seeks to point them back to love, as everything is meaningless without it and engaging in love as an action builds up the church of Christ. Now having a deeper understanding of why this passage was written, I wanted to emphasize a couple of points Paul made: Verses 1-3: In spite of anything we do, say, or have, none of it matters without love. Verse...

Huge fun fact, I have a fear of thunderstorms and the dark. It might sound silly, but I hate the unknown when I have to move from room to room without having any sort of guidance of if I am safe from obstacles that may cause me to be injured. Thank goodness for flashlights though. With flashlights, things that we may not see become exposed by the light, so that we know what is safe and what is unsafe. With headlights on the car we can see if there might be a pedestrian, where the medians are, and if there is any hazards that we might need to avoid. Believe it or not, we are flashlights too. In our wear the word wednesday Bible verse Matthew 5:16, we are told to “let our light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Through our social events, through our Bible Studies, through our outreach, we become flashlights to those on our campuses, or as an alumna, in our communities. The coolest thing about being in a sorority...