I'm Back!

I'm back and I'm tired. This morning was really hard to get up and go to work. The thought of calling in sick was really tempting but I would kind of feel convicted if I did and wasn't sick. Plus I already took friday off last week.

My weekend was like nothing I've ever been to. It wasn't a regular type of retreat where you have free time or a couple of speakers. This was a lock-in at a church and every minute was planned for you. I don't know how much I can disclose because they like to keep things under wraps so that people who are going to go sometime don't go with any expectations. But I can elaborate a little. If you do a walk to Emmaus you'll probably forget what I said, or you could google it anyways.

All weekend you are showered with love from people. People are praying over every minute of the whole 72 hours you're there. They are praying and preparing a whole year in advance for this one particular weekend. There are 15 talks dealing with the basics of Christianity. There are many surprises from the leaders and people who are behind the scenes. You have to be sponsored by someone who has gone through it and they are praying for and blessing you in different ways all weekend. It can be an emotional weekend. The men go the weekend before because they are and should be the head of the home and spiritual leader. The men are even blessing their wives during the weekend through some of their own surprises. It is just a weekend where you can reconnect with the amount of love God gives us and the free grace that is ours to accept. He uses many people to show the love of God all weekend. It was pretty cool. Everyone walks away with different feelings of how they were touched during the weekend. This group of women was not a teary group as others have been. I think the men cried more than this group of women. I had my moments, but they were brief and few. I didn't really want to cry all that much and didn't, which when it comes to spiritual things or church, there are usually tears.

But the best surprise of the weekend was when I got home. I have the best husband. He showered me with love this weekend. He prayed for me and thought up ways to bless and impress me. Here's the scene: Jason and I are dropped off at home by our sponsors. We drop my stuff in the living room and I'm told not to move. He blind folds me and says he's been working on a project. I'm laughing now and thinking about all the things he could have done, like paint the laundry room and move the freezer in. Practical things like that. He leads me into our bedroom and drops the blind fold and I was pleasantly surprised. I had been grumbling about our furniture not matching. He painted our mismatched dresser and nesting tables black, which we had talked about. He had found some wedding pictures and put them in black and red frames and hung 2 of them up, which he painted. He even went to Walmart and bought a J & A and painted them red with black sides and hung them up. He was so impressed with my scrapbook supplies when he made his own photo mats using my "cool tools". I had 3 red roses on the dresser. His theme and inspiration was us and our wedding colors. My HGTV watching seems to be rubbing off. All this for $30! He even made a shelf to hold my baskets of scrapbook supplies that really cleans up my area. I was pleasantly surprised and cried at the shock of it all. I truly am loved!