Ladies Retreat

This past weekend, I went on a ladies retreat with our church. It was so nice to get away and be encouraged in God's Word! Our speaker, Kris is always so encouraging and practical...just a great speaker. The weekend's theme was relationships (Rules to the Relationship Road--I hope she makes it into a Bible study!!). The main premise is that if our relationship with God is not right, none of our other relationships will be right. As women, we so often try to fill a void for joy with other people and things, that was always meant to be filled only by the God that created us. Even our husbands cannot fill that void. So we have to stop trying to make them! :) Some highlights of the weekend:

• Our expectations (of others) cause problems. We need to be quiet and let him/her (our husbands, friends, etc.) hear the Holy Spirit.
• If I'm going to love others as I should, I must worship God as three things: Creator, Sovereign, and Savior. Too often we're too casual about our own sin and too impassioned about others' sin.
• The key text was Ephesians 4.

We must learn to yield:

• Change is healthy: Paul encourages believers to walk worthy of our high calling--humble, tolerant, and gentle...I must diligently work to have peace in my relationships.
• The Trinity should be our example for relationships: unity, humble, working together
• Relationships takes us beyond our normal strengths!

We must learn to stop:

• We are commanded to no longer walk as an unbeliever. As Kris said: Paul doesn't tell us to pray about, to have a group study about it...he simply tells us to STOP IT!
• I am on assignment by God to bless those He has put in my path.
• Ask yourself every day "Am I enjoying God?"
• Be a good listener (duh!)
• Slow down and evaluate your relationships.
• STOP the sinful behaviors. Kris said we all have our "pet" sins. We must STOP those and replace those behaviors with something else. We give the devil a foothold with those "little" sins and that is a dangerous thing to do!
• Eph. 4:29 (go read it!)...she gave this illustrations--a dad gave his two children a tube of toothpaste and 2 paper plates and then left the room. He came back later and, of course, they had all the toothpaste squeezed out. So the dad told them "Okay, now put it all back in the tube." Of course, that is impossible. He said that toothpaste is just like our words. You can never "put them back"--ever.
• Not forgiving others shows that I don't understand what I've been forgiven. Jesus allowed himself to be tortured FOR ME...to save ME.

If I forgive, I promise to:

• Not bring up this sin and use it as leverage.
• Not repeat their sins to others and then sin, myself, by slandering.
• Not dwell on the sin.

• Forgiveness is an event and a process...you can't just "forgive and forget". But I need to hate my sin as much as God does.
• Forgiveness is NOT peace at all costs.
• There's a difference between an apology and asking for forgiveness. An apology implies that it was a mistake. (I've been working on this with Anna.)

What a growing weekend it was! She had quiet time questions to work through and those were challenging as well. I would highly encourage you to look at Kris' website and pick a Bible study to do (either on your own or with a group--she has CDs and DVDs with them) or even get her to speak at your next women's event at your church. God has used her in mighty ways and she is a humble, willing servant.