"Fully Devoted"

So, I’m back from the ladies retreat. We had a really nice time. It’s always great to get away with the ladies and get to know them better. One lady said this weekend renewed her faith in women’s ability to be nice to each other! LOL. The setting was beautiful. We were up in the mountains by a lake. We even had a campfire one night and made smores. The one downside was it was pretty cold. The temp wouldn’t have been so bad except that being right on a lake it was also very windy. Saturday afternoon Brandy, Leanet and I had a great time going for a nature walk around the lake with our cameras. It’s a little over a mile. During the weekend, we sang karaoke, played games, laughed a lot, and the food was good.

But, as fun as all this was, it was not the focus. We went to get closer to God. The theme of the weekend was ‘Fully Devoted’. Did you know that in Hebrew, the word devoted is ‘Herem’ which means ‘objects devoted exclusively to God? It means ‘chosen’. It’s not something you do, but something you are. I never thought of it like that. Pretty cool. Have you ever wondered what your ‘purpose’ is? I have. It can be a very difficult question to answer. For most it seems full of great and grand things that we should be doing to change the world and give meaning to our lives. But the answer, for those who follow God, is actually very simple. When it comes right down to it, our PURPOSE in life is to know God and his love for us and be transformed into someone who can love him back. The happiest people I know are those that have ‘knowing God’ as their purpose. Think about it.

These are the bare bones of what we learned this weekend. Just a few of the things that stood out for me that were simple enough to record here. I hope I didn’t bore you! If you have the opportunity to go on a retreat such as this one, I urge you to take it. Now the challenge is to carry what I learned down from the mountain into my daily life.


Roan Quote: We saw the first BIG bee of the season. It was hovering right by our front door. Roan doesn’t like insects, and he asked me why the bee was here. I told him I didn’t know. He thought about it and said, “Maybe the bee is here because it’s Tuesday.”