Ha!

We're Back!
And just for the record,
I had a better time than anyone else there.
It was so good!
God was so good!
I think we all needed that special time to bask in the Presence of the Almighty!
What a truly wonderful gift it was!
To the precious women who worked so hard to put that monumental and seamless product of a retreat together - I am indebted AND SO GRATEFUL!
To my Lord, Who showed up in an awesome way- Tenderly tending His flock, while smiling back into our tearful eyes as we poured tears from our alabaster jars upon His feet...
It was pure.

To partake of a moment in His presence, I would give myself over completely.

I learned that my worship must first move me, to move my God.

I got to love on and be loved on by so many of His precious daughters, His princesses...

I was able to spend a beautiful weekend with my dearest La, who has forever imprinted her perfume on this heart of mine.
I love your smell, the scent of your life envelops us all.
Your grace, your acceptance, your humor, your wit and wisdom, your purity, your passion for your King...
You have been God's gift to me.
Your example and heart of servanthood chisels away at any hardness or unwillingness inside me to do the work of my Father.
Although you are, as you would proudly proclaim, several months my junior, you have been used in my life and many other lives as a mentor and fragrant expression of woman, mother, and friend.
As a result, my life has been touched in a way that an aroma of you will linger.
You will always be my friend. I love you with a love that distance cannot extinguish.

My Heavenly Father, Orchestral Maestro, Hanger of the stars, and Sculptor of the moon - You have been, in my mind, an untouchable entity. Although I have long known of Your unharnessed compassion for my soul and Your unrelenting desire to know me as Lord and friend,

I have been unable to accept Your acceptance.

I have indicted myself as unacceptable in Your sight for so long. I have felt unworthy to wipe my feet on the mat outside Your Outer Court. Far less fathomable to me, would be to invite myself into Your Holy Place...

but You are so approachable.

I am sorry for not approaching You with bold and unhurried worship.


I learned this weekend -

* To accept the fact that I am acceptable.

* To embrace my brokenness as a work that is always being spun into something new and better by a Loving Potter,

* That a willingness to avail myself to God is, understandably, a requirement for forward movement in this earthly life.

* A vulnerability that allows my Groom access to my secret place, to rearrange every nook and cranny of even the deepest recesses inside my heart,

* That He, in His vastness, can and will hold me close to His chest, to shield and overshadow me, as a loving Father eagerly anticipates my next wobbly step.

How much love He has for His own!

What a beautiful time with my Lord!