Feb. 13, 2007

I'm Dreaming of a Red Valentine's Day!

I went to the TNC office today and some people there, ie. Gene, Kevin, Chuck, Laura O. told me it was time to update my blog. Hey, maybe I'm still dreaming of a white Christmas.

Anyway, we just finished our "Chicks Gone Wild" weekend at the Marriott. What a great time! Friday night, in our hobby tables, the chicks had items like a toilet paper tube, glue, magazines, tape, construction paper, and other odd objects and they had 30 minutes to come up with a centerpiece about their hobbies with these items. Let me just say, our chicks are very imaginative!

Lisa Harper, our speaker was fantastic. She taught us that God uses many goobers to get his word out; so some of the Biblical characters that we may think are pristine were actually "characters" with something questionable in their past, but God later called them the ones he loved. Now that gave us hope because we all have some "gooberness" in us.

Jill Phillips and her husband Andy then led us in worship. Once again, they reminded us that "Nobody Has It All Together", which by the way, is their cd title. The did tell us that this retreat was a first...the first time they had ever sung in front of a thong! (Hey, we said, we were going wild!)

At the end, Lisa asked us what we wanted to be when we were 6 years old and then what we wanted to be at 25. She then asked us to bow our heads and raise our hand if we are struggling with what God wants us still to be. And then the most precious of all, was that she asked Andy, Lance and Chuck to come by the women and pray over them. It was a powerful moment.

The message was...God still wants us to be what he's called us to be. We can go forth in assurance like Deborah in the Old Testament. Women, during Biblical times, were considered property, the same level as owning livestock. But God asked Deborah to lead an army. What then is he asking us to do? If it is to lead, then he'll provide the followers, if it is to tutor a child or work at a bank, or use our hobby, he'll lead the people to us that he wants us to talk to. It's not that hard...we follow him and he provides us the desires of our heart.

The desires of our heart...now that's a good Valentine's present!

Until next time,

Mama Chick