Day 14 ~ Some of My Favorite Quotes & Pictures

Quotes from Friday, April 30th, at the Ladies’ Retreat, & Pictures of the Beauty Surrounding Us There
It was a team of 4 missionary ladies who came to speak to us at the weekend retreat. They had been missionaries for decades, in various parts of the world. All 4 of them are now based in the United States, working for Wycliffe Bible Translators. They spoke encouragement to us, they taught us from the Word what God has taught to them through experiences, they spoke to us not as superiors but as sisters in Christ, they prayed for each one of us, they taught us new songs, they weren’t afraid to be silly just to make us laugh, they brought us hand-made gifts from the states, they gave each lady a giftbag filled with treasures not easily obtained here, etc… The point is ~ they blessed us in SO many ways!

While they were speaking, I was taking notes like crazy ~ wanting to soak in all the rich goodness! There were hours and hours of teachings, sharing, & workshops… So, I’ll share here JUST A FEW of my favorite quotes from Friday. It is my prayerful hope that whoever is reading this would be tremendously blessed by these words of truth, as I was! (Since I was really amazed by the beauty of this place, I am also going to insert a picture after each of my favorite quotes ~ praise God for the beauty of His creation & for the creativity He has given some of His kids to create such beautiful things!)

* They sang a song to us, then taught it to us.  It included “we can do together what we cannot do apart, we can change the way things are, if we have a change of heart, just like Nehemiah, who needed everyone to rebuild the walls, we can do together what we cannot do apart” ~ We are the Family of God & we need our Sisters in Christ!

* she “was praying for healing for 12 years, but God chose to wait 12 years to heal her” ~ Sometimes, we might not understand God’s way of thinking, why He would allow certain things. But, if we say we trust Him, we NEED to trust Him!

* “when we live with a fear of rejection, we so much want to be seen as perfectly perfect that we are actually approval addicts. Then, when we FEEL rejected, there’s a hole in us with a vacancy sign that the enemy can “enter in” ~ the reality is that life is full of rejections!”

* “it’s about learning to rest, to abide, to sit at His feet & sometimes, to sit on His shoulders, just to get a different perspective” ~ I just LOVE this word picture! I can picture my 3-year old twin niece & nephew insisting that their Daddy (my nearly 6-foot tall brother) carry them on his shoulders. I can imagine that part of the reason they love being up there is because it is special time with their Daddy. But, I can also imagine that they love seeing more of the world around them from that point of view, instead of being their little 3-foot tall selves!

* “living by faith, without feelings isn’t real – the soldiers, David, Hannah, Job, Rachael, Elisha, Peter, Jesus = they all wept!” It’s okay to cry!!! It is okay to be real! It is okay to be honest with our feelings!

* “there’s no container known to man that can contain bitterness – it leaks out to those around us!” WOW! How true is this?

* One speaker shared a personal experience of how she was very upset with someone who had wronged her. She said that “we become chained to those that we allow to bother us.” She read 1 John 4 & said that she “had held onto it, but God said to her that she needed to change the tapes in her brain, God told her to pray blessings over this person, to give the unforgiveness she felt up to God, then to write this person & ask for forgiveness because she was refusing to drag it around with her for the rest of her life”

* “Amazing Grace isn’t just for when we get saved, it’s for now, for everyday!” Boy, oh boy, we DO need grace every single day, don’t we? In speaking with the OCS principal yesterday, he asked me if I would be willing to do something. I confidently told him, “I believe that God provides sufficient grace for whatever He has called us to & for the period of time He has called us to it!” Amazing Grace!!!

* We were all challenged to “LISTEN to the voice of God on the behalf of others. When a thought comes to mind, or when you sense a verse…TELL them, share that with them, because that is God wanting to speak through you to bless others!”

* We were reminded that even in the midst of troubles, “He is STILL the Prince of Peace!”

* These are the lyrics to a song they sang, that I absolutely loved: “When nothing but a miracle can do, there’s nothing He cannot do, He is more than faithful & He will bring you through! There’s nothing the hand of God can’t do, He is more than able to bring you through!”