Women's Retreat

This weekend I went to a Statewide Women's Retreat. I went looking forward to the "me" time I would have. I have to say walking away from it, I pray that I am a better woman of God. I learned so much. There are so many things I want to take away from this weekend.

Practically I know that God uses me and all of my imperfections, but I think it really hit me this weekend. The reality is that He puts many people in my life for a reason and I sit back way too often. I feel like I really need to start sharing my life with others. God has changes me in so many amazing ways.

I want God to shape me. I know it requires absolute trust. I think I have problems with that, but I am working on it, praying for it. Our trials often harden our hearts. In order to be shaped by God, our hearts must remain soft. I want that, but there definitely is an inner battle. I want to have the faith to push through whatever I face. I need to continually be real and always be open. Sometimes it is so hard to be completely open because of my fear of what people will think of me. What I need to remember is that I need to be concerned about God not other people. One of the biggest things I have struggled with for years is being a people pleaser. I have changed and grown, but there is still a part of me that worries about what others think.

I think one way that I am preventing God from working powerfully in my life is the amount of control I try to have on everything. I am not giving God the power to work in me. I am trying to take all of his control away and replacing it with my control. I think about all of the things that Jacob (my son) goes through, all of the trials he faces. He definitely has issues and does things that are not acceptable, but his love for God is so amazing...so pure. He is not concerned about the way others perceive him; he only wants to please God. Oh what I can learn from him. What we all can learn from him.

I have a lot more that I learned, but I thought I would start with this for now. I cannot change everything at once, but with God I can do all things.

Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation)
2Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.