What do you want to be when you grow up?
I know exactly what I want to be. I just saw it in action last weekend at a Deeper Still conference in my hometown. No, I don’t want to be the precise person I saw living out my dream, but please, oh please God, can I just be like her?
Kay Arthur. Think Women’s Bible Study and she has to come to your mind, the founder of Precepts International - the champion of Inductive Bible Study, colored pencils and soul-searching questions. She is tirelessly working around the world to teach people how to discover and apply God’s Word to their own lives.
A collective gasp resounded around the room when she said she was 76 years old. Looking sassy in her blonde hair, designer jeans, and fabulously fun jackets, she was asked how to age gracefully. Are you kidding, I wanted to scream! Sure she’s still “painting the barn” (her reference to taking care of herself) beautifully, but the IMPACT - the life-altering, destiny changing, international impact she’s making absolutely defies the imagination!
The photo montage of her ministry was a study in a wide variety of countries, cultures, and ages touched, while the decades of fashion pictured spoke of the 31 years she’s helped others personally apply the Bible. I loved that, but I was even more captivated by the fact that she’s still going strong! Still working every night, she couldn’t even answer a question without the Bible falling out of her mouth. With uncharacteristic candor and a tenacious addiction to studying God’s Word, she has altered and paved the way not only for modern day Bible teachers like myself, but also for students of the Bible everywhere.
Most people tire of the “job” that often defines them, but Kay is still hungry to go ever deeper with God. Still studying, eager to currently handle and accurately divide each and every book of the Bible! And so, to the Kay Arthurs, Elisabeth Elliotts, & Henry Blackabys - to all those who’ve gone before us, studying late into the night to wet our appetite for God’s Word…thank you again and again.
As I listened to Kay teach, I couldn’t help but mentally calculate: how many years before I’m 76? If I choose to go deeper still with God, what kind of impact could I make???
Really Relating
What teachers have most impacted you? How have they done so?
How would you most like to impact others, and how can you best do so?
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I agree, she is amazing. I think that I want to be like all 3 of them (Priscilla, Beth & Kay) when I grow up. For so many reasons. As far as the Bible study author that has had the most impact on me, probably Beth Moore. Each of her studies have touched me in a different way! Jenn Hatmaker really reached me this summer as far as teaching me how to effectively study the Bible. And as far as a teacher that I actually know and watch live out their life on a day to day basis, I'd have to say YOU. I've seen you in many different life situations and have been greatly impacted watching you put your faith in action and continue to grow deeper.
ReplyDeleteAh, thanks for your sweet words, Heather! I greatly appreciate the encouragement, especially knowing you've seen some of the last darker years of my life :o) And, I definitely agree with you on the other teachers you mentioned. Beth's studies always get personal, don't they? And Jen's Modern Girls Guide to Bible Study is a God-send to those who run from Bible study because they think it's too hard, boring, irrelevant, or time-consuming. She really makes it accessible and personally relatable. I love how God uses different women in different ways to teach us!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, Kay Arthur one of my favorite Bible teachers too. I've taken many of her Precept classes, some of them a couple of times. She is truly a visionary and one of the Lord's most effective teachers. Elisabeth Elliot is another one of my heroes too! Passion and Purity is a must-read for all teenage girls.
ReplyDeleteWow!
I agree with Heather... Katie D. mentioned at Cuppies the other night that you were mentoring her and I said enthusiatically "Me too! Me too!" What lucky girls we are. Now, if you ever get even near Kay Arthur's pace of public appearances and tours and scheduling, I'd like to bid now on the role of personal assistant. What FUN we'd have! :)
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