In which we retreated from the world we knew...

I got back from our women's retreat this afternoon. It was a very good weekend. This morning we woke up to a blanket of snow on everything. The tall pines were all weighed down by the wet snow and it kept falling onto our heads.  


Lots of snowball tossing. Ann Marie was pitching snowballs like they were softballs (and she was in a championship game) at anyone who came out of the cabin door. It was hilarious to watch (from our window). People were trying to pack up their cars and they would have to dodge snowballs while doing it. She had really good aim too!
Our guest speaker is a really good Bible teacher. Really.good.Bible.teacher. (and I don't do the periods after each word thing lightly) So it was a full weekend as well. No fluff....lotsa meat. She talked about being still and finding refuge in Christ....all from the Psalms. I shared a few sentences about soaking in God's love. Then Sheri, who came with me told me on the way home that she had written a chapter of her new book about soaking in God's love in her hot tub....a place of refuge and comfort to her, reminding her of the warmth of His love. It was very telling of how God works, placing the same thought in several different places and then they all converge to confirm and encourage that you are on to something....on to His leading.


I love it when that happens.


No soaking this weekend, as there was little time to ourselves. Kind of ironic that we went to something called a retreat, but were rarely away from the crowds. But we did hear from God and have come away with minds that are full of treasures from His Word.

June 1, 1984

A good friend of mine had this scanned and put it up on Facebook for me. I'm so happy! Thank you Kim!

The Great Conversation

Cruising along....

That's not good now, is it? To just cruise through life.....work, home, laundry, picking up kids from schools, dinner, plop in front of the television, go to bed, etc etc.

I was just reading my daughter Hannah's blog in which she reveals a fraction of what she has been doing this year. It is amazing what a year of concentrating on Who God is and learning to listen to Him and acting on that each minute will do for a human. It's been a good year for her. I have had times like that in my life, but not so long a time. The longest I can recall was a summer spent in the mountains of New Mexico working at a conference center. I had a lot of free time there and I spent a lot of it in God's Word, in the forest being quiet and listening for Him to speak.

And He did. It was one of the most lonely, thoughtful, enjoyable times that I can remember in my life. In our Bible study group that summer we studied the Sermon on the Mount....Jesus' basic instruction on life really.

And now I am wondering how I've let myself get so far from that simple faith. Busyness of life, yes. But life will be busy. I have to make time to be quiet, to quiet my mind. If we quiet down, He will speak to us. I think He wants to speak to us more than anything. God is an active being. He's not on cruise...not ever. And the time is short, so I think more than ever we need a reminder to listen and obey.

The school Hannah goes to calls it 'soaking'. Taking time to sit before God, enjoy His presence and listen. Prayer is good, but we have to listen too because prayer is a conversation.

The season of Lent is beginning this week. Six weeks until Easter. It always has me wondering what I need to add or subtract from my life each year. This year I definitely need to add some quietness....time to listen because I know He is speaking and who would want to miss that?

Do you? ;)