Introduction to Adorned with True Beauty

We women are so busy these days! If your life is anything like mine, you have more commitments than you know how to handle. There are family, church, and community responsibilities that you must juggle. As you open this Bible study, you may be thinking, “How will I ever have time to make it through these lessons?” And yet you know that God promises to bless the study of His Word. You know that your relationship with Him should be a priority in your life. My prayer for you and for me is that God will so draw us to Himself that we will not miss a day of time with Him in His Word. I pray that He will do a mighty work in all of our lives as we spend the next few weeks together.

As I write this study, I can see in my mind’s eye a variety of women who need to know that they are precious to God; I can imagine women of all stages of life desiring to adorn themselves with the inner beauty that God desires for them. I see singles, young married women, mothers, grandmothers, and women at home and in the workplace wanting to share in the community of a small group of women who will accept them and love them. If you are ready to grow in the Scriptures and in relationships with others and with God, you are in the right place.

We are all on a journey with God through this life. Some of us are farther along than others. Yet, we join together each week throughout this study to become one community of women seeking to know their God. The exchange of thoughts in a small group of women of all ages has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. When I was young, I learned so much from the life stories of the women who had walked before me. Now I hope that the story of my journey will be encouraging to you. As you will notice, I share a lot of myself when I write a Bible study so that you will know that I am real.

May the Lord richly bless you as you commit to these nine weeks in fellowship with God and with other women, seeking to follow God and grow in our love for Him -

Kay Daigle

How to Use this Study Guide

This study is designed to help you consistently spend time in God’s Word daily. Each week’s lesson is divided into five days of homework so that you spend time with God listening to His voice each day. The Bible is God’s message to you, and He wants to speak with you personally. You will gain the most from this study if you do it day by day, answering just that day’s questions, rather than trying to stuff it all in at once. Working on it daily will also allow you to meditate upon what you have seen as you go about your other routines.

A Precious Word from God - Each week you will have a verse to memorize that brings out an essential lesson or thought from the week’s study. Begin learning it the first day. You might copy it on an index card and carry it with you throughout the week, hiding God’s Word in your heart.

Specific types of questions

Sharing questions - These questions are designed for you to write stories, insights, and applications from your own life. If we are to be in community with one another and support one another, we must truly know one another. Although you will never be forced to share one of these answers, be willing to be open and vulnerable with your small group by volunteering. Because we are all still growing and learning, we need each other’s support.

Responding to God - On these questions, you are asked to write out a response to God after studying His Word to you. I have found that writing out my prayers helps me to focus better on what I need to say to God and gives me a way to review my prayers later. Be honest and open here as well. No one will call on you to read yours. You may desire to volunteer to share what you have written and should always feel free to do that.

• Diamonds in the Word - These questions are designed for those who want to dig deeper into God’s Word. Some of these will be easy for even a beginning Bible student to answer, and some will require more experience in God’s Word. As a group you will not discuss these, but the background that you gain from digging into God’s Word in a deeper way will certainly enrich your own relationship with God if you apply what you study.

Personal Stories

Each lesson includes a true story that relates the truths of that week’s lesson to a woman’s real life experience. Some of the names have been changed to protect the guilty! Be sure and read these stories each week although your group may not have time to discuss them together. The stories themselves will be an encouragement to you in your walk with God and your growth in true beauty.

Note from Kay Daigle

I would be thrilled if you decide to use one of my studies! They were written just for women, with their needs and concerns in mind in order to maximize their spiritual growth. In order to make the most of these studies, it is necessary to follow the format in the following order:

1. Personal study should always precede discussion.

• The women will gain more through their own time with God than any other method of learning. God can speak to them personally as they hear from Him.
• Although some women may come unprepared, focusing the discussion on what was studied in the homework will encourage them to study.

2. Weekly small group discussion should precede any lectures.

• Use trained discussion leaders to lead the groups through the questions that the students answered during the week, building on their personal study.
• Studies have shown that reading followed by discussing what was read enhances the learning process.
• A small group provides a forum for women to share their personal stories with one another, which allows for mentoring and accountability in a group setting, especially in groups of mixed ages. Such groups provide an environment for fulfilling the biblical directives for women in Titus 2.

3. Lectures should be the final thing you do, and they are optional.

• Studies show that people learn best through their own study followed by discussion. Although some of the women will want the lecture first, if you put it first, many will skip their personal study. Unless they spend the necessary time alone with God and His Word, they limit their own spiritual growth.
• You can download my lectures, but please do not simply play them for the group. Use them personally if you like. I believe a teacher should be part of the local body, not some stranger. The best teachers are those who live in the midst of those they teach, accountable to their students, being a model as well as a speaker.
• I did not lecture for every lesson because some weeks we meet longer in small groups for fellowship and there are weeks when my interns teach.
• If you do not have someone with the training and gifting to present her own lectures, pray for someone with the gift of teaching to begin to learn how to prepare and present a lecture on her own. She may want to use the audios of my lectures to help her as she learns, but she should never simply substitute my lecture for her own study and preparation. I recommend that she go through the training on bible.org in the theology program to learn how to present this kind of teaching if your local church does not provide it.