Making your way in the world today

Takes everything you got.

Taking a break from all your worries

Sure would help a lot

Wouldn’t you like to get away?

Sometimes you wanna go

Where everybody knows your name

And they’re always glad you came

You want to be where you can see

Our troubles are all the same

You want to be where everybody knows your name.

You may recognize the above words. This is the theme song to “Cheers,” a sitcom on TV for many years; I use this illustration in our training to equip women leading small groups. It is a great mindset to have as you welcome each woman in your group. It helps to meet their need to feel accepted and seen before you begin to “plant the seeds” of God’s Word. And who wants to listen to anything said until they feel valued, seen, or heard?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:23, “But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

As small group leaders, we can prepare our class to have good soil to receive just by valuing their attendance and giving them a listening ear. When people are in a state of readiness, they will receive and respond differently.

Getting God’s Word to take root in our lives greatly matters. Let our hearts not be distracted with worries or hardened by offense, and let’s pray to have a ready heart and mind to receive all God has for us.