By Colleen C. Mitchell

Between the WINEs Summer Book Club June 19 through August 28th JOIN in at www.CatholicVineyard.com

 

So, now that you’ve met me, I want to tell you little fact about myself. I adore lists. My planner is one of my favorite possessions. But I love my shared iCalendar just as much. I make grocery lists and to-do lists daily. I keep lists of the books I’ve read in a year, divided by fiction, nonfiction, spiritual reading, and poetry. I make lists of the Scripture verses I want to memorize. I keep a list of all the places I have traveled to. The only kind of lists I avoid making are bucket lists. Especially seasonal ones, like the summer bucket lists that pop up all over social media this time of year.

Way too much pressure to create perfect, precious memories. Also, there are no seasons where I live. It’s either hot or raining or both. Plus, my life IS kind of a bucket list in and of itself. But since I am always up for a new adventure, I thought I’d make my first ever bucket list.

A WINE Summer Book Club bucket list.

Here are twelve experiences I hope we all have while reading through Who Does He Say You Are? together this summer.

  1. Find encouragement and affirmation in being women in pursuit of a personal, intimate relationship with the Lord.
  2. Be reminded that the internet can be a lovely place that unites us rather than divides us.
  3. Read by the pool or the sea with a frozen beverage in hand.
  4. Feel seen, known and loved by Christ, our Biblical sisters, and our WINE sisters.
  5. Delight in being delighted in by our Savior.
  6. Eat lots of ice cream and other cool, creamy treats.
  7. Find our brave and join an in-person study group of the book or jump into the comments section and share our thoughts and reflections.
  8. Open our Bibles daily, read with new imaginations, pray with new fervor, see Jesus in a new light.
  9. Wear our swim suits in public because our bellies and our thighs are created by and loved by a God with a sense of humor.
  10. Walk with heads held high like the prophetesses and proclaimers of the resurrection that we are, and find contentment in our place at Jesus’s feet, beside, not before or behind our sisters in Christ.
  11. Finish the study with a firm conviction that being a woman whose identity is in Christ is a gift that transforms us and gives us purpose that fills us with passion.
  12. Invite some sisters over for wine and cheese or milk and cookies or a vacuum-my-house party and use that time to remind them how deeply they are loved by their God, just as they are, who they are, right here and right now.

I will be praying daily for all of us to check these bucket list items off with great joy. And I’ll be here in the comments watching and waiting for your brave and honest and funny and true stories and thoughts and reflections. I can’t wait to spend the summer with you all. The bucket list is waiting! Let’s get going. No pressure, though.

 

About the Author

Colleen Mitchell is a wife to Greg, bringer-upper of five boys, foreign missionary, and writer, speaker and encourager and wanna-be saint. She lives in Costa Rica where she and her family carry out the work of their missionary non-profit, St. Bryce Missions and run the St. Francis Emmaus Center pregnancy and medical hostel for indigenous women. She is the author of Who Does He Say You Are? Women Transformed by Christ in the Gospels and blogs at Blessed Are the Feet

 

 

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