~Luke 1:45
Hey, friends and fam!!! I've missed you, and I'm so happy to be back. =)
This break has been wonderful for me. God has done an awesome work in my heart, and I want to hold fast to the truth and to the new purpose and identity He's given me!!
(*Sidenote: Laura's coming over for a Velveeta Shells-n-Cheese dinner & catch-up session tonight, so I'll keep this post somewhat short, but will write more in a fun Top 10 post tomorrow.)
The Captivating Retreat was life-changing! It was my first time in Colorado, but hopefully not the last - so beautiful there!!!
The snow-capped mountains in the distance were my absolute favorite - really breathtaking and majestic, which is not a word I use often! While I was there, we had some rain, some snow, some lovely clear weather, and lots of wind and falling leaves. God was so very present and personal, and I'm deeply thankful that I had the opportunity to go!
Stasi taught most of the sessions, and they used several movie clips that were perfectly poignant and well-timed. They gave us lots of quiet time to reflect and pray and journal and be with God. Then John showed up on our last night there to teach a session about men!! ...I ADORE HIM. Seriously, it thrilled me to see him there, and it was all I could do to keep the "Covenant of Silence" as he was leaving and not rush to get a picture with him. I did take this picture as he was walking away, and I rather love how it turned out... the light and beauty and life of God + John Eldredge (who has helped me to see and feel God's light and beauty and life more than anyone else on earth)!
Here's a happy slideshow of several recent events, which I'll cover in more detail in future posts. I'm just loving this song right now... "You can be the outcast or be the backlash of somebody's lack of love. Or YOU CAN START SPEAKING UP! ...And since your history of silence won't do you any good - (did you think it would?) - let your words be ANYTHING BUT EMPTY! Why don't you tell them the Truth!!?"
*DELETED WITHOUT NOTICE BY VIGO VIDEO. =(
"Praise the Lord! I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with His godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in Him should ponder them. Everything He does reveals His glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails!"
~Psalm 111:1-3
"Thank you, God, for the things You heal, the things You redeem, the things You refuse to leave just as they have been for what seems like forever.... I am thankful for the breaking of things that needed to be broken, that couldn't have been broken any other way, thankful for the severing that allowed me to fall all the way down to the center of my fear and look it in the face, thankful for being set free from something I didn't even know I was enslaved to. There is a quality in my life that I sense now, like a rumbling bass line or thunder far away, and the only phrase I can find to capture it is that it is the feeling of having nothing to lose. I have nothing left to lose. Because I was embarrassed and ashamed in such a deep way, and to my surprise, I'm still here. I'm happy in a new way, free in a new way."
~Shauna Niequist
"I see the stars; I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art; HOW GREAT THOU ART!"
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