A year after I became a Christian my first week in college, I was so blessed that an older woman (um, Barb was only twenty-eight but at the time I thought she was ancient!!!) met with me one on one every week for two years.  Did she ever help lay a solid foundation for me continuing to persevere and grow in my walk with God.  Not only did she help me understand the gospel (and what had just happened to me!), but she got me started in some basic spiritual disciplines that have nourished and fortified my soul for the past thirty years and most importantly, she faithfully met with me and loved the socks off of me, even though I was a bit wild (ha!) and untamed!

And right away she encouraged me to pass onto other women what I was learning.  That began an adventure in co-laboring with Jesus that has continued through the past 30 years!  My life has been so relationally enriched and my walk with God so spurred on through doing this!  It truly has become a huge part of my life and something I so love to see others discover the joy of doing too.

To give you a picture of how passionate I am about discipleship, I once saw a Billy Graham film where hundreds of people were coming forward to receive Christ and I started crying, “Who is going to help love and care for all those babies?!”

Now I believe with all my heart that the Lord is sovereign and He is so creative!  And so able to meet those needs in other ways, but over and over again I have seen such a difference in the lives of people who are met with one on one versus those who seek to grow in groups or on their own.

But lately I keep running into people who have never been discipled but who deeply desire to learn how to make that investment in others.  Trust me, if they lived near me or if I wasn’t so hearing impaired I’d want to start meeting with them all in a heartbeat!  Hands down the best way to learn how to disciple someone is to be discipled yourself.

So if you were never discipled one on one by someone or wish you could be but don’t know anyone around you who can do this but still desire to bless someone else in this way, know you are a huge answer to my prayers! The harvest truly is plentiful and the laborers, especially those willing to take the time to invest one on one in another believer, are few.  So I just keep asking the Lord to raise up more disciple-making laborers for His harvest!  And if in some way the Lord wants to work through this blog to provide some help, guidance and encouragement that facilitates this happening, then so be it!

I am passionate about women being discipled by other women!  So if any guys are reading this, you are so welcome to – but this is unapologetically going to focus on women discipling women.  For it’s being written from the heart of a woman who for thirty years has been seeking to be Jesus’ disciple and help others be His disciples too.

Now if you go into any Christian bookstore or do a search at amazon on discipleship – you are going to find a ton of books, programs, resources on this topic.  I entitled this “The Heart of Discipling Women” because I find that to really be key.  Programs and plans  are often only of limited value.  It’s just like a human body – without the heart, there will be no life!  But get the heart and there sure is a lot of leeway for what will keep that body going!  I once knew a girl who lived on ice cream and potato chips!  Not the most nourishing fare but she survived and is a mom today.  :0)

So let’s dive in and see where the Lord wants to take this… and us!  May this truly be all He wants it to be for His glory!