"That Time" of the Month, Problem or Promise?

Last night was our last official Problems & Promises; the lifegroup for ladies that I've been teaching since April. I'm moving into a different lifegroup series tonight so I had to wrap up P & P.
We had a lesson called "Learning to Learn". Being the last group, I wanted the ladies to have a lesson in finding out what God and His Word have to say about their questions on their own, how to flesh out the truth of scripture. I thought that would be a fitting finale. Boy, was it.
First of all, we had about 18 ladies in the little corner of our coffee shop. I think that's the record. After a crash course in Bible and reference use, we started throwing out topics and studying them out together. What a time. It was loud and obnoxious and silly and one of the most profound moments of fellowship and truth of my ministry, perhaps of my entire Christianity.
Question #1, were Abraham and Sarah really brother and sister? Well if Old Testament genealogy isn't an easy topic to comprehend, I dont' know what is! Thank you very much Becky for jumping right in to expose my ignorance! So 18 laughing women jumped in and dug and interpreted and questioned and read and yup, it appears they were. Which opened up the discussion to God's command for purity in the bloodline that His people would remain untarnished. Which was a really cool discussion.
I won't give you every detail but will tell you that we now know if we can have "those kind" of relations with our husbands during "that time" of the month. Yup. Reactions were mixed. Laughter was loud. We also talked about divorce and submission and love and rebellion and abuse and hope and escape. We laughed until we cried and then we cried until we could laugh again. We got vulnerable and raw. We touched hearts and hands and heaven.
We decided important issues like tattoos and plastic surgery and trust and sacrifice. We found out it all comes down to the heart. We looked into the corners of our own hearts to see what we might give away, and what the Lord might put there instead.
We ended Problems and Promises tonight. And we started something else. We got unabashedly silly and scared and unsure and unashamed together. We all left reluctantly after one more hug and a lot of "I love yous". We all left wanting more of each other and God and His Word. We started something. I can't wait to see what it is.
I love you, my sisters and fellow brides. Thank you.