Transcript

Erin Davis: Welcome back to the Women of the Bible podcast. This is the “Elizabeth” season, and you’re in the Revive Our Hearts living room. We are walking through this Bible study together along with you.

I hope that you are gathering with friends as you read it. Bible studies are always better with friends. And I am with some friends.

If we were actually in my living room, I always start Bible studies with a quirky question. So this time as we are in week #2, I’m hoping that you can answer an age-old question for our listeners. I need to know the best mascara. Because my quest for the perfect mascara is never ending, and I’m hoping you have figured it out. So tell us your name, and tell us your mascara recommendation.

Alejandra Slemin: That’s a hard one for me because I normally don’t wear it. I just have it for very . . . I have the pink one.

Erin: With the green lid?

Alejandra: Oh, yeah, that one! What is it called? CoverGirl?

Erin: I don’t know. I just know it is pink with a green lid.

Meg Honnold: Your hair is so dark. It must just show up. If I went without mascara, it would be a sad day.

Alejandra: Well, my name is Alejandra. And . . . I like CoverGirl mascara?

Meg: My name is Meg. And I’m a CoverGirl. I do the lash blast volume.

Erin: It’s in the purple one?

Meg: It’s orange.

Erin: I’ve tried for years to find the perfect one. CoverGirl . . .

Meg: It’s cheap. You can get it at Walmart. It comes in a two pack now.

Erin: Does it give you raccoon eyes?

Meg: No, it does not. There is no little dusties underneath my lashes, either.

Erin: So those of you who are listening to the podcast, you just got some bonus tips and mascara to try. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I’ve tried the really expensive kinds . . .

Alejandra: If you have daughters, don’t buy expensive makeup.

Erin: Good advice, but I don’t have any daughters . . . just for the record.

Alejandra: The daughters will just wreck it.

Erin: Well, we are not here to talk about mascara. We are here to talk about Elizabeth, and what Elizabeth has to teach us about disappointment.

In episode one, we took our first peek into Elizabeth’s story. Her whole story of what we know is found in just one chapter in the Bible. It’s in Luke 1.

I think that a lot of the times when we look at Elizabeth, we look at her as kind of “background noise” to the arrival of the Savior—which, all of us are “background noise” to the arrival of the Savior. But we just get these snippets of her story leading up to the nativity and the announcement that Mary is going to have Jesus.

But we do know that Elizabeth faced years, we don’t know how many years, of infertility. The text tells us that she and her husband, Zechariah, were advanced in years. It’s a nice way of saying that they were old.

Meg: Very old! They were very kind about it.

Erin: And they had no children.

We have to assume a little bit that they wanted a child. Although, when the angel appears to Zechariah, he says, “the child that you’ve prayed for.” So they prayed for this child. And they faced a lot of years of disappointment.

So we are looking at her as sort of an example of how can we be women who face disappointment with grace.

The title of this session is: The Bigger Picture. What I’m so excited to talk about is how our disappointments can be an opportunity for us to preach …