My personal retreat!

Well, I was supposed to be headed off to the coffee shop today, but Micah got a last minute baseball game...so I went out Friday morning. Why I don't do this more often is beyond me! I can't tell you what a sweet time away it was...a time of communion with the Lord and self-examination of my own heart and the choices I was making in my life and in my priorities.

There are so many times I have had the desire to "just get out"...I have felt overwhelmed and tired and have wanted a break...to go shopping or do something just for ME. But, in the end, when I have come home and I fall right back into the same struggles and battles (especially with my own heart) and feel almost worse than if I had never gone out at all. Today helped me realize that if I am truly feeling a need to "get away" the only place that I need to go and should go is to the arms of Jesus! Only He can "give strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak" (Isaiah 40:29). It's not that it is wrong to get out and go shopping or some other fun outing...but,like everything else, it's our motive for why we do what we do!

Here is an quick outline of what my time away looked like. It may look different for you...but I STRONGLY encourage you to set aside a special time to run to the arms of Jesus and stay there for a while! I am going to shoot for once a month from here on out!

I got to the coffee shop about 10 a.m. and left at 12:30. I had brought my little Ipod shuffle with me but was unsure if I would use it. I was afraid it might be too much of a distraction having music right in my ears while trying to think on other things. But I am SO glad I brought it. I was way more easily distracted by the conversations going on around me than I was by the music once I jammed the "buds" in my ears! :) All the music on my shuffle is Christ-exalting and I found, many time, that it aided me in having a heart of worship!

I spent the first half an hour reading the Bible (no ipod in my ears!), the second half and hour I simply pulled out my calendar and went over my schedule for the month of May...writing down dates I needed to remember, things I needed to do, keeping days open for just our family and days open to invite others over. It felt good to have a "heads up" for May before it came and went and dragged me along! I spend the following 30 minutes going over a couple of articles that I had wanted to read and meditate on but had not had the time. Both were fantastic! The first was on feeling overwhelmed and the second was on the gospel. My last hour was spent going over the personal retreat material using it as a guide for what God has called me to and if my priorities lined up accordingly or needed some shaking up!

I would stop every once in a while to join in singing the song on my shuffle (don't worry, I didn't really sing out loud...I just looked like a crazy person with my eyes closed and my mouth moving!). And, of course, I had a couple of potty breaks after having my wonderful mocha frappucino! All in all, I really liked the format I used. If I had more time, I probably would have cracked open one of the several books I am trying to read...but it really was the perfect amount of time, otherwise!

I'll try to share some of the things I learned as I sought to be a little bit more like Mary and a little bit less like Martha! It is a beautiful thing to sit in the "shadow of the Almighty".

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm 91:1