Ladies' Retreats

I was privileged to attend 2 Ladies' Retreats this month. The first one was in TN and was such a blessing! The theme was "The Beauty of Holiness." All of the classes and messages were inspiring and urged us to look inside for the true beauty of holiness. It's entirely possible to LOOK holy on the outside and not be holy on the inside, but if there's true holiness on the inside, the outside will reflect that truth. I try to examine myself each and every day as I meet with the Lord and pray Psalm 51:10 and Psalm 139:23,24. Each and every day I pray these scriptures. I always try to add in Psalm 141:3, for my protection and the protection of others. ;-) Anyway, back to Ladies' Retreat. The second Retreat was in Colorado. It's been 4 years since I've been able to attend a CO Retreat and I was SO HAPPY to be able to be back with familiar faces and surroundings. Although the Retreat was held at a new campground nobody had ever been to before, the Rocky Mountains were familiar and the Big Horn Sheep Canyon was certainly familiar. It brought tears to my eyes to be back "home." Home . . . I've had a lot of homes (I'm not talking about houses so much as "areas" where I've lived). I get nostalgic when I go to visit ANY of my former homes, and central Colorado is certainly no exception. I was especially blessed to be able to get together with some of my friends from Howard, CO where we lived for 9 years. There was a group of ladies I got together with once a week to just fellowship, have refreshments and sew together. It was called the "Knitting Club," but I don't know how to knit (yet) and most of the other women didn't actually knit either. We worked on whatever hand sewing we wanted to--quilting, cross-stitch, crochet, even mending. This group had been getting together for over 20 years. I was honored and privileged to be included in the group and we had a lot of sweet fellowship together. These ladies were from various different religious affiliations and I tried to be a witness of true Christianity and a spokesman for The Church of God. We had a special love for one another. It was so sweet that 8 of these ladies took time out of their schedules to meet together for about 4 hours on Friday afternoon before the CO Retreat which was held about 25 miles from Howard. One of the ladies drove me to the campground after our fellowship. As was the custom whenever we met for refreshments, they asked me to pray over the meal. I eked out a prayer through my tears of gratefulness for the Lord allowing me another session with these friends. God was so good to allow me that special time. --Hmmmm. I got sidetracked from the CO Retreat, didn't I? Sorry. The theme of this Retreat was "Rest in the Lord." It was SUCH a restful weekend! I really enjoyed getting to be a TAP Leader (Talk And Pray group). It's been a long time since I've had a TAP group. I had fun preparing for it and I thoroughly enjoyed our 3 sessions together. Sister Bishop was the Guest Speaker for both Retreats and she's ALWAYS such a blessing! I love her so much and thank God for providing me such a wonderful friend during this critical time of my life. God put the two of us together as she, too, is facing a critical time in her life. It's like God has groomed us for years and been saving this special relationship to bless us both with right now at this time. God is SOOOO GOOD! My daughter (in-law) was the Director and she did a marvelous job of preparing and directing the Retreat. It was fantastic to get to be with ALL of our kids and grandkids the day after Retreat. We enjoyed a day of fun, fellowship and laughter at Jon and Em's house in Denver. Again, God was SOOO GOOD to allow us that time and opportunity. And then God protected us on our way back home to Cleveland and spared us from a tornado that crossed the Interstate just minutes before we would have been through that area. There was a semi truck and some other vehicles that were damaged, but God spared us any damage or injury. Thanks be to God.
That's the end of the Fall Retreat season. There are more to come in the Spring and I've already been invited to 2. I LOVE Ladies' Retreats! I'm hoping I can make it to both of them.
Meanwhile, I give thanks and praise to God for His marvelous love, mercy and faithfulness. I know I'm not worthy of all He's done for me, but I'm SOOOOO grateful and I want to live my life surrendered to Him and His perfect will, whatever that would be. I could never praise and thank God enough for all His blessings He's poured out on me.