Ladies Retreat

This past weekend I was blessed to attend the ladies retreat for our church. The lovely Crystal Spencer and myself made up the young married's group and were blessed to spend the weekend with some ladies that had been through life a little longer than we had. The speaker was Pat Scott, a woman who has gone through unimaginable grief and has turned that grief into encouragement to others. She spoke about the issue of grief and how we can conquer the storms that we least expect. Here are the top 5 "ah ha" moments that came from this weekend:

1. We are all in one of these 3 phases in life: preparing for a storm, in the middle of one, or just leaving a storm to calmer seas.

2. You may be the only Bible that some people might ever read.

3. Grief does NOT mean that we are weak or have no faith.

4. Life is TOO short to get caught up on dwelling and worrying about situations that probably will never happen. (I am SO guilty of this)

5. God never wastes our pain. He will use it to bring Himself glory and to bring His children back to Him.

Grief is a toughy. It was a weekend of facing the reality that bad things happen to good people but the same reality speaks of God using those horrific storms to bless many. God is good, all the time.

I am thankful for the friendships made and the lessons learned during this weekend. I pray that whatever stage you are in, that you will keep your eyes on Him and give Him all the glory.

Peace.