Hi! I’m Barb Bindewald. Like you, I have many roles in life: I’m a wife, a mother, a mother-in-law, a grandmother, a friend, a sister, a pastor’s wife, and a missionary in Japan. But most importantly, I’m a Christian - a follower of Jesus Christ some 40 years now. God has given me a love for His Word and a desire to spur other women on to chew on, that is, meditate, on God’s Word with me.
We are not a Bible study, but we’re all about the Bible. We’re not a discussion or sharing group. M&M stands for Meditate and Memorize, with the emphasis on MEDITATE. MEMORIZING is encouraged but optional! M&M’s life verse is Jeremiah 15:16: “Your words were found and I ate them; and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by Your name O Lord...” We M&M-ers are all about feeding our souls well with God’s Word and eating slowly so we get all the nourishment we can from it. We’re a one-hour class (less if you M&M online). We have a set routine we go through: quieting our hearts, singing our hymn for that term, reciting or reading the verses together that we’ve covered so far, and then a listening time when I share what I’ve gleaned from our new verse. But the real M&M doesn’t happen there - that’s just a pep rally! The real M&M happens during the remaining hours of the week between each woman and her Lord.
We are Marthas who love serving the Lord but are also Marys who fight the good fight to quietly sit at His feet and gaze at Him, hanging on to His every word. We are women of all ages and stages of life: working women and stay-at-home moms; single women and married women; moms, wanna-be-moms and moms-to-be; moms of little ones, of teenagers, and moms of grown-up kids; we’re high schoolers, college students, middle-agers, and grandmothers! We live in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alaska and Alabama, in Kenya, Romania, the Ukraine, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan!
We started in 2009 with a class of ten ladies meeting together on Wednesday nights at my church. We have now had as many as 170 ladies participating – in one of several classes held in churches or in coffee shops, or in homes. And because we are online, we have many who M&M by themselves or with a friend via the Internet. Now those who can’t participate in a weekly class but want to M&M can do so.
I have learned over the years that reading and studying God’s Word and listening to sermons are not enough. I have filled notebooks with notes from Bible studies and sermons. These are very important, and I’m so glad I have, but I have found I can fill my head and somehow not feed my soul.
The Lord used two hard terms of missionary service in Japan and a diagnosis of depression to drive me into a closet! I’m an Eeyore-type, easily discouraged and quick to despair. When the busyness and badness of the world began to break me, God led me into the desert and spoke tenderly to me there; He began to restore me, to give me back my vineyards of fruitfulness, and put in me the desire to sing again as I did in my first years of becoming His child. (see Hosea 2:14,15)
In the closet He began to teach me to quiet myself and be still and know that He is God and I am not. He led me to the words of a hymn I had never heard before:
Lord I have shut the door; speak now the word,
Which in the din and throng could not be heard.
Hushed now my inner heart; whisper Thy will,
While I have come apart, while all is still.
Now we start every class with the verses to that hymn. In the quiet of my closet I started TAKING IN His Word, learning to crush it and get the juice, the nutrition out of it... I learned to FIGHT to do this; that it will not come easily or naturally, and years later I also learned that doing it with other women is easier and more fun!
We use verse cards and quote cards and stories and a recording to play in your car or at home. Here are a few basic tips to memorizing and meditating on Scripture verses:
Read the verse(s), several times without trying to memorize it.
Repeat it, a section at a time.
Rite it, (a GREAT way to slow down and chew on the verse).
Recite it, to a friend, to yourself, to your children, to the Lord! Then it becomes prayer!
Review, Review, Review! THIS is the key to memorizing – not one big work, but a little work done often.
Reward yourself! It’s Biblical!
Stickers on a chart?
Pat on the back?
Shopping???
What is M&M?
Meditiation and Memorization of God's Word through a weekly class and private devotion time.
What does a typical class involve?
1. Shut the Door
2. Sing
3. Recite
4. Lesson
5. Prayer and Benediction
Too many to fit on this page! Go to the comments page.
M&M Gathering
On Sunday afternoon, August 18, 2013 we had an M&M Gathering (hopefully it's the first of many). What a blessing it was to me as together we shut the door, read or recited verses, and sang some M&M songs. I was so charged up by that time together! THANK YOU to each and every one of you who helped to make it happen, and much praise to the One who is in all things and holds all things together.
What is M&M?
Meditiation and Memorization of God's Word through a weekly class and private devotion time.