Ladies Transformed Retreat

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the SBC Transformed Ladies Retreat in Indianapolis with the ladies from my church. It was such a blessing to attend this event. I came back feeling rejuvenated and on fire for the Lord! It gave me a renewed passion for serving my heavenly father. The keynote speaker Tammie Head was amazing. She mentored under Beth Moore, an amazing woman in her own right! Tammie was so passionate about us transforming our lives to be a reflection of Christ to the world and doing with joyfully!

I was able to attend 7 break out sessions. The first session I attended was called Transforming your Thinking. The concept of the session was guarding our thoughts and how we react to those thoughts. She told us to be PACRATs. P stands for Pause, going back to James 1:19 where he says be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. If we Pause, we can work through that slow to anger. A stands for analyze. Take in the whole situation before jumping to any conclusions. C stands for commit it to God. Pray over the situation and give it to God. R stands for respond. You are to respond in a loving Christ like way. A stand for and. lol Finally, T stands for thanking God for the situation, but most of all, thank God for being at your side and moving you through it to glorify Him!

My next session was Mercy in the Storm! Nicole Commer was an amazing woman of God! She was an missionary overseas with her husband for years and they felt lead to come back to the states as missionaries. They moved to Pontchartrain, LA in 2005. They had only been there for a few weeks when Hurricane Katrina hit and they were new parents living completely away from all of their family. They lost everything. Their church of 1200 was not 400 and they started questioning if they made the right decision or if this was God's way of saying that he wanted them elsewhere. It did not take long for them to learn that God had placed them right where he wanted them and through all of the relief efforts they were able to touch the lost in Christ's name! Nicole said that we as Christians need to learn how to persevere through the storms we come to in our lives. God never said that when we became Christians that we would be free of bad days, but HE did say that he would be there with us through it all. Its not a matter if we will come upon a storm, its a when we come to the storm and how we react to that storm which will either less God's glory or it will Glorify Him!

My next session was named Bless the Broken Road. The speaker was yet another amazing woman of God. As a child she had been molested. As many children who have been molested, she put the traumatic event in the back of her mind. Shortly after she got married she realized that she was a very angry person and she could not understand why she was so angry. She prayed over her anger for a long time and God finally showed her that she had never forgiven her offender and because of that she was not able to be happy in her life at that time. She worked through her anger and eventually forgave her offender. She said that if you are unable to forgive those that transgress against you, than God will not be able to forgive you transgressions. That does not mean that God will take back your salvation. Once you are saved in Christ's name, you are always saved. What she meant by that was any sins from that point forward will not be forgiven until you can forgive others. She also said that forgiveness is not a process, it is a decision. Getting to forgiveness is process, but once you decide to forgive, it a decision! Not forgiving lingers over your life and to be able to enjoy God's glory, you have to forgive those that offend you. One last thing she said was that just because you forgive, does not make the offense against you ok, it just allows you to move forward without that event hanging over your head.

At that point Fridays sessions were over. I felt so uplifted and excited. We went to dinner at that point and following dinner we had evening worship. We enjoyed uplifting music and great speaking by Tammie Head. After evening worship there were a few sessions available, but myself and a few other ladies decided to enjoy fellowship with each other.

Saturday started with a morning worship service. After morning worship I attended a two part session by Tammie Head called Duty or Delight? The session was geared around our service to the Lord. Do we feel that our daily service is a duty or do we delight in serving the Lord everyday? God does not want to be a burden to us, he wants us to find joy in everyday life and in serving Him. Tammie Head was an amazing speaker. She was an awesome example of how God can use anyone to spread his gospel. Tammie was from a broken home, like so many of us. She quit school in 9th grade. She was a mother at 19 and did not come to Christ until 21, like me! As she put it, in the eyes of most of the world, she is not an educated woman, but yet God is using her to reach the lost and to uplift those that know Him! So when you think you can't spread the good news, remember God can use anyone!

The next session I went to was Intimacy in Marriage by Amy Rardin. All of my sessions were inspiring, but this session was an eye opener and gave me a deeper love and respect for my husband. She had a lot of great points. We should think of our husband as a CEO of our home and we are the General Manager. We can give input into the decisions of our home, but ultimately our husband should make the final decision and we should be supportive of his decisions. We should pray for our husbands in everything that he does. We should build him up. One very important point was that we should never ridicule or diminish our husband in front of others. We should never do that ever, but men need their wives to respect them and uplift them and embarrassing him ruins that respect. Husbands and wives each have needs. I would highly recommend any couple wanting to grow closer should read together the book His Needs Her Needs. Average women need affection, conversation, honesty and openness, financial support and family commitment. Men need sexual fulfillment, recreational companionship, an attractive spouse, domestic support and admiration. Number one and two on the man's list can be switched. Number one on the list is pretty self-explanatory, but one thing that all women need to keep in the back of their mind is that no matter what, you should not deny your husband, because it crushes his spirit and if it happens too many times it could lead to your husband looking elsewhere. Infidelity is never your fault, but if a man finds himself rejected, it could lead to viewing of pornography or worse and extra-marital affair. Next is the recreational partner. Men want their wives to participate in things with them that the man loves. It does not meant that you can't have things that you like to do and that he can't have things that he likes to do, but you should find somethings that the two of you can do together. It makes your husband feel loved and that you are willing to put effort into him. You will be surprised that if you put in the effort to do that, he might put in effort in areas that you would like effort/change from him. Next is an attractive spouse, now this does not mean you have to change yourself. Hello, he married you for the woman that you are, but what it means is every now and than when he comes home from working a long hard day, make yourself up for him rather than sitting in your junk sweats and your hair up in pony tail! He wants to know that you care about him enough to take care of yourself for him! Domestic support is just as is sounds. In particular for stay-at-home moms, your husband wants to know that he can rely on you to care for the home and your children. That does not mean that he will not participate in choirs around the home or the upbringing of the children, but it gives him confidence in you that you will care for the needs of the home. Finally there is admiration. A husband wants to know that his wife holds him in high regard. I know, I know, many of you are probably thinking, I love my husband and I admire him as the Christian man that he is and I admire him as the father and husband that he is. When was the last time you told him? Men need reassurance. You need to make a point to tell your husband how much he really means to you. From there Amy told us to make TIME, T - ten to twenty minutes each day alone to strengthen your marriage. I - Invest in weekly date nights. If you can't afford to go out for a date, have a few hours without the kids at home. M - Make a monthly day away policy. Again, if you can't afford a hotel for a night way, have the kids stay at a friend of family members home. Finally E - escape quarterly for 48 hours away weekend. As the other dates, if you can't afford it, make a point to have grandparents or friends take the kids away so that you and your husband can focus on the two of you. Amy ended the session with the Marriage Golden Rule: Meet your spouse's needs as you would want your spouse to meet yours. That session had plenty of laughter, but you could tell that it touched a lot of women and it was so uplifting to see so many women wanting to improve their marriages in a Godly way.

My final session was success and failure. The speaker was teaching us that there are women in the bible who either succeed or failed. We have the right to choose to either succeed in Christ or to fail in Christ. We should choose to succeed in Christ.

We ended the weekend with another worship service. There is nothing like hearing a bunch of believers raising up praise to God! Tammie spoke again ending our weekend on just a high note reminding us that God wants nothing but the best for us and that we should live in the joy of the Lord!

I highly recommend if you have not attended a ladies retreat or a men's retreat for that matter, you should attend. Being with that many believers is just an awesome experience!