{Enlightened}

 This past weekend I attended our church's spring women's retreat. I hesitated to attend because I've never left Trice before, and I'm still nursing. The thought of pumping again was.. well.. pumping just wasn't going to happen. But I was more worried about how he would do with mommy suddenly not being there and now is just not a good time for weaning. I just really felt that God was calling me to go and Nick insisted.Since he's always calm and collected, I didn't have to worry about Trice.. I knew he'd be in good hands. The retreat was titled "Enlightened" and focused on a verse from Ephesians. We happen to be studying Ephesians verse by verse in my bible study right now and the pastor is also covering the book of Ephesians right now in his sermons -- so all signs pointed to Go! 

The weather threw another obstacle our way, but apparently not everyone is a sissy about driving in the snow so we made it safe and sound! My roommate (Ally) and I decided right away that we clearly do not get out of our houses enough. We were like high school girls at summer camp. We may have even jumped on our bed... you'll never know. After spending a good 10 minutes freaking out in excitement, we headed to dinner.

The tables were decorated SO beautifully. They really out-did themselves. I don't have any pictures because I wasn't brave enough at that point to whip out the camera. And I figured people might not appreciate pictures with food in their mouths. We enjoyed Chicago style pizza the first night and they did some drawings for prizes. It was kind of funny because every single person who won a prize was sitting at the pink table. Why did I pick green?!

 Next we headed to our first worship service. I had warned Ally about my horrible singing voice. After the first song she leaned over and told me I have a good voice and that she was expecting me to sound like a frog. I had a really hard time not "ribbit-ing" in her ear during the next song. I LOVE singing worship music and could care less about what I sound like. The Lord says make a joyful noise!

We headed back to the room and got in our "cozies" and had some Minute-to-win-it fun! 

At the end of all the rounds, my team (Team Orange) and Team Pink were tied... I somehow got nominated for the tie-breaker round. I'm still not sure why since I failed miserably at both of my previous challenges!

This athletic college student had to outdo me by .5 a second. In my defense, she went 2nd so she knew how fast she had to go AND she knew what did/didn't work as far as strategy (Yes, I'm a bit competitive...) 

The winning team! They won "Minute Maid" ... obviously.

Then we stayed up pretty much all night just hanging out and chatting and eating... and eating some more. Ally and I finally headed back to our room where we stayed up chatting even longer. Finally I had to say, "Okay, we HAVE to stop talking. Good night," and then I think we only exchanged a few more stories. 

Saturday came VERY quickly. We enjoyed a continental breakfast and then headed to our first session. 

Deb spoke on hope. She focused on "hope-so" and "know-so" hope and the differences between them. It definitely changed my perspective on hope and I will catch myself every time I start to say, "I sure hope..." 

Without God, we easily give way to hoplessness. With God, we know-so. Know-so hope is "the confident expectation, the sure certainty, that what God has promised in his word is true." It is not dependent on our circumstances. It offers confidence and security. Hope depends on knowing the Word of God, knowing and resting in God's grace, and living a Spirit-filled life. We also talked about how we often put our hope in people or things and we will always be let down. When we put our hope IN Christ, He will never fail us.. even if what we receive isn't what we had in mind, we have still received the gift of salvation.

After the morning session, we had "personal reflection/quiet time." We were given a packet we could use to lead ourselves through some deeper thinking about hope or we could pray or study the Bible on our own. This was really, really moving for me. God opened my heart to many, many things during this time - so much I was brought to tears over some things that have really just been roadblocks in my relationship with Christ. I also discovered my huge insecurity of constantly trying to please others in everything that I do. So many verses were speaking to me about how I need to stop getting my fulfillment from the approval of others and instead do everything for the glory of God. When I try to please people all the time, I'm always let down.. but when I am obedient to God's word - He never fails me. I felt a lot of weight lifted when God spoke this to me.. phew. 

This verse really stuck with me this weekend -- 

Romans 5:3-5
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We then enjoyed Subway for lunch - I won't tell you how many sandwiches I ate... and I really didn't take a picture of how many either.

After lunch we enjoyed manicures and hand massages!

Hand Massages

After being pampered we had a few hours of free time. I really needed a nap but couldn't turn down shopping.. Let's not talk about how many sweaters I found on clearance at Target and Old Navy...

Okay.. we talked about it. This picture is missing one. But, in my defense, one of those shirts was $1 and one was $3.. so they practically gave them to me. I also got a steal on a pair of way-too-cute black boots - $11! Winning.

We came back and devoured some delicious Olive Garden for supper. Then we headed to our evening speaker and worship session. The second session was on the greatness of God's power. 

The speaker was a missionary for years and has so much wisdom. I admire her strength in all the difficult situations she's encountered. Her testimonies are remarkable. I desire to be bold and more willing to speak up about Christ's love to those who don't yet know Him. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." I often can't find the words to say to those struggling, but I always feel like I'm not serving the Lord when I don't share. My hope is that after this weekend I no longer struggle to find the words but instead just share what is in my heart. We talked a lot about God's power and how it isn't so much what you say, it's that you do say it.. let God's power and the Spirit do the rest.

After the speaker, it was time for our cozies again and an AMAZING hot chocolate buffet. Seriously - the lady in charge of this put her heart into this thing. Chocolate dipped marshmallows and every topping you could possibly imagine. Unfortunately, most of us were literally about to explode from eating all day long so we had no room left for anything...

Everyone won a prize as the weekend went on. There were a lot of fun and beautiful choices, but I went practical and picked a devotional book - so far it's great!

Our last speaker had us make a neat little book to go along with her presentation. It was a little more advanced than my usual preschool projects, but with a little help from a friend I did it! 

We attend a fairly large church and have been going there since this summer (we think). Because there are two services, there are still a lot of people we don't know or don't know very well yet. This weekend I learned a lot more about all of these wonderful ladies, their testimonies, and just who they are. It is no coincidence that we walked through the doors at Crosswinds several months ago. It's been an incredible journey and we have grown so much stronger in our relationship with Christ. Nick and I are both involved in small groups. I serve in the nursery and he serves as an usher. We are active in "Faith University" classes ranging from learning about the church to how to study the Bible to parenting.

We've seen the differences in our relationships -- with each other, as parents, with friends, etc. I feel so blessed for what the Lord has done in my life and I know that he has big plans for Nick and I in the future. I left the retreat so full of hope and love that I felt my heart might explode. I could go on for days! It was truly wonderful. Now my hope is that I can carry that experience with me when I'm back to reality -- which I already am -- because it's much easier to stay positive and focused on Christ when you're surrounded by a group of Christian women, all your meals are fed to you, no cleaning is necessary, and you're constantly worshiping. 

If you'd like to hear more about the retreat in greater detail or are looking for a church to attend on Sundays, I'd love to share with you how God is at work at CrossWinds! {His Grace truly is enough!}