RBBC Women's Retreat

The last weekend in February, I went on a Women's Retreat with my church. My sis-in-law, Elizabeth, and I made the ~2 hour trek on Friday afternoon and made it just in time for the first worship session that night.

I really didn't know what to expect from the weekend. I knew that I had several awesome girlfriends there and several girls from Sunday school that I wanted to get to know better. The speaker, Laurie Aker from Thistlebend Ministries, was great! She was very personable and easy to listen to and the Lord really used her to speak to me in ways that really stuck with me.

One thing she said during the weekend was that as Christians, one of the "No's" is "no condemnation". She said that the Lord will convict us of our sin, which is a good thing - bringing to light something that He wants us to chage. However, condemnation is not from the Lord. Condemnation is taking that conviction and punishing ourselves to death with it.

For example, the Lord convicted my heart of something that weekend, which was a good thing - I needed to be reminded that this particular thing was not what the Lord wanted for me; but immediately following the conviction my mind started to tell me that I was a horrible wife, and that this "thing" would never change, and that I could try and try but things weren't going to get better, etc. etc. etc... So finally I said YOU SHUT UP!!! :) I won't allow you to tell me that something is impossible, because it's not! Don't try to beat me down before I even start! (It was a really clarifying moment for me to realize that I had been beating myself up and condemning myself, instead of trusting God and allowing Him to work on this area of my life.)

One of the phrases Laurie used a bunch that weekend was getting rid of your "old girl". When you become a Christian, you are no longer who you were, but are new in Christ - however, that "old girl" likes to creep up and butt into things. (My old girl was definitely trying to sabotage any forward moving progress in my life.)

So when Laurie challenged us to be more consistent in our quiet time each day (or in my case, to START having a quiet time each day...), my old girl said "Well, you've tried that before, and it doesn't work for you. Get up early? Please. You know you can't do that. Even if you do manage to get up one morning, you won't stick with it. It's too hard and you don't even know what to read or study or pray about anyway." (My old girl is long winded.)

Well, old girl, it's been TEN mornings now that I've gotten up early and met with the Lord. So take THAT! :)

I'll end my ramblings with a short video from the weekend. It's a familiar song, but it really took on new meaning for me this weekend. "And I will seek You in the mornings, and I will learn to walk in Your ways."

I know the Lord really used this weekend to bring me back to Him. I'm so thankful that the ladies who organized this event, took the time out of their schedules to do so. It was WONDERFUL.