Sacred Sisterhood

Leading worship is...

• a blessing
• exhausting
• a blessing
• hard work
• a blessing
• an adrenaline rush
• a blessing
• followed by an adrenaline crash
• a blessing
• and much, much more

This weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to lead worship at our annual women's retreat. All of the above bullets describe the experience for me. It was wonderfully hectic and beautiful. The theme for the weekend was Sacred Sisterhood. We tackled the "whoppers" and "milk duds" that tear community apart for women (and, yes, there was definitely chocolate!). We hashed out gossip, slander, bickering, complaining, and other kinds of negative talk women are prone to exhibit. It was a piercing, convicting weekend. The following are some of the questions I found myself asking in my heart of hearts. These are the questions I will need to spend some time prayerfully considering in the days ahead.

• What are my words doing to others?
• What does the spirit of my words do to me?
• How do I be an emotional woman without letting my emotions negatively spill out on others?
• I use words to process, detox, vent, and work through things. How do I balance being a woman who uses words to process, with being a woman who knows when to choose silence?
• Why is it so hard for me to overlook an offense?
• What needs to change in me in order to overlook an offense?
• Do I see each person I come in contact with through the blood of Christ?

So, here I am back to life away from the retreat. It is now time to sit on all the questions and ponderings the Lord has placed in my heart. Pray that the Lord will grant me clarity of thought and conviction to follow through on His guidance. May the Lord bless you as you grow to be more like Him.

"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense."
Proverbs 19:11

"...fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ."
2 Corinthians 10:5 from The Message