Pastors Wives Retreat (10/6/2014)

I was able to attend my first Pastors Wives retreat here. I was continually making excuses on whether or not I should go. That “I didn’t have anyone to watch the kids” when my parents offered many times to keep them for the weekend, or I didn’t have the “time”; I pretty much made up every excuse in the book to not go. Then, my loving husband said I had to. He does that a lot, because I tend to talk myself out of many events.

I’m super introverted when it comes to things like this. Going to a conference where there were 900 women and I didn’t know anyone freaked me out. Being by myself scares me, knowing that I was probably going to be the youngest one there intimidated me, and being the only PW with tattoos and a nose piercing not entirely concealable made me feel a tab insecure.

There I went, packed the kids in the van (yes I have a minivan and love it), dropped them off at Papa and Nana’s house came back and started my weekend off. I probably had 4 mini anxiety attacks before the first segment. But I did it.  And met 3 wonderful women there who would probably be my BFFs even more so if we still lived in Phoenix.

The Theme was “Rooted”. If you know me, I’m obsessed with trees. I actually have one tattooed on my arm. I don’t know why I am, but I’ve always been fascinated with them. Trees are just beautiful and produce two things: beauty and bounty. It’s a constant reminder of seasons and change, that’s exactly where our family is now, in a season of change.

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To be Rooted in the Word, why? {Colossians 2:7}

  • For stability
  • For truth
  • For its standard (2 Cor. 2:20)
  • For its perspective
  • When I am rooted, the Lord will bring Victory
  • Because the Word is a book of promises and there isn’t one that I can’t claim.
  • I can choose to live as a victim, in shame and defeat. Or I can CHOOSE to live in the Lord’s promised. I can choose to stand, to with-stand.
  • He who knows the why of His existence will remember the how.
  • Sin sets us apart from God’s purpose…holiness sets us apart for God’s purpose.
  • To be reminded of who HE is and to remember who I am. I am a new creation in Him.

That is just a tiny, tiny part of what I had learned in that weekend. I seriously could go on and on about how wonderful the conference was and how much I needed to be refreshed that weekend. So I will spare you 4,000 more words of note taking and my thoughts 🙂

In the end I realized, as Acts 2:1-4 states…” be filled with the Holy Spirit” I can’t be the wife or mother that I need to be without the Holy Spirit. I need sanctification. And Jesus is the only one that can do that.

If I’m not Rooted in the Word, and being an example of Jesus to my husband and children I have failed. Not failed as in I do not do amazingly fun projects with the kids every day, or failed as in I did not have my home looking “Pintrest worthy” but failed as in I did not do the job that God created me to do, raising my children to KNOW God, to SERVE Him, and to LOVE Him. Not only am I rooting myself in the Word; I am forming an example for little minds and little hearts to follow after and thereby be rooted as well.