First Captivating Session

Well, I didn't get a chance to post yesterday but I'm here now. When I walked into the auditorium where we had our sessions, there was a packet on every chair. Under every chair was a pack of tissues. I suppose I should have known at that point that I was in trouble! If you have not read the Captivating book yet, I highly recommend it. I believe it is a must read for every woman. I'll just give you some of the points they discussed in the first session.

1. I have been Chosen. God has chosen ME to be His child, His beloved.

2. Evil will hunt me. The Enemy is on the prowl. He came to "seek, kill and destroy." Do we(I)
live like it? Are we on guard for when Satan comes around to attack us?

3. I cannot go alone. That's what the Enemy would like us to believe- that we are all alone, no one
else can help us in our struggles. We try to "fix" ourselves. I would suggest if we had what it takes to fix ourselves that we would have already done it by now. We do not. We need others along the way to speak into our lives, to pray for us, to encourage us and to keep us accountable.

One thought I wrote down was "We want to write our own story because we don't trust God with the one He's writing for us. Do I hold out on God because I believe He's holding out on me?"

We had these silent times called "Covenants of Silence." It was a designated time of silence to reflect on a question they asked of us. It truly was amazing to see 400 women dispersing from the auditorium in absolute silence(perhaps a miracle :-). 400 women? Silent? Beautiful!! Our one covenant of silence was to ponder the question- What things have taken me away from my first love?(God) As I reflected, I came up with this list:
Bitterness
Anger
Unforgiveness
Control
Hopelessness
Despair
Fear
Anxiety
Worry
Depression


Then comes the why? Why do I feel all these things? They certainly don't bring life, the life that God promises. Don't I really trust God? He is so powerful and so good, but is He trustworthy? Do I really believe everything in His word from the beginning of creation in Genesis to the closing lines of Revelation or do I pick and choose what I feel is true? (That's a question I've reflected on for the past year.) I didn't get an answer to these questions during that time of silence. I did Saturday evening! Gotta keep you coming back!

Home Again!!

Hello all!
Well, I've been home for a week now and so I thought I'm due for a new post to let you all know how my trip went. Thank you for your patience and your many prayers! I didn't get much sleep on my retreat and with the time difference it took me awhile to feel rested. Where do I start? I think I'll just tell you the general details of the trip and then journey into the intimate moments I had with God over the course of my weekend. There was a lot to process and that is what I spent a lot of last week doing.
When Greg and I got to the Harrisburg Airport last Thursday morning, we discovered(much to my dismay) that my flight had been canceled due to a mechanical problem. I'm glad that they discovered the problem before it was in flight, but the nonetheless not really what I wanted to hear. I did get another flight 2 hours later but it was going to leave me with 1/2 hour to get off the plane, get my luggage and get to my shuttle. I called the number I had for the shuttle when I got to Chicago and was relieved to hear that although they stated 1:15 SHARP as our meeting time for the shuttle it was in reality 2pm so that was good news. I did make it in plenty of time.
Soon after departing from Denver to the ranch it began snowing and didn't stop until sometime late Friday night because we woke up Saturday morning to beautiful, sunny skies and you could see for miles. The snow capped Rocky Mountains were just gorgeous and no picture I took could really capture their beauty. I'll get those pictures on here as soon as Greg shows me how!
Four of the other girls from my group(the Daily Audio Bible) journeyed off on a mountain horse ride Saturday afternoon during our free time. It wasn't as scary as the horse ride that Greg and I went on 3 years ago when we went to Colorado, but it was a sloppy, muddy mess. Glad that my horse, Sox was very sure footed!
We were very well fed the entire weekend- and i didn't have to buy any of the food, tote it in from the car, put it away, prepare it or clean up!!! I think I ate more food that weekend than in a month!!
On the way home I was delayed in Cleveland for 2 1/2 hours! Bummer! I was so excited to get home to see my family. I couldn't help but cry when I saw them. God had answered my prayers for their safety while I was gone and gave me safe travels as well, although I had some unexpected bumps along the way. I think I'll leave it at this for now. I hope to post each day to share what happened each session and what the Lord showed me through each one. Like I said before, it was a lot to process- what is truth for my life now and in the future. Thanks again for all your prayers and notes of encouragement! They were a great source of comfort and love for me!