Yesterday I sat on my bed and spent at least an hour struggling to untangle three fine chains that had knotted themselves over and around each other.
(Note to self: don't store necklaces together and then ship them across the world again.)
As I sat there, I thought of Jackson Browne's lyric that says--
"... maybe we've found what we had lost when we've unwound so many crossed and tangled misunderstandings..."
How knotted relationships can become. How much work to untangle the misunderstanding.
A toothpick finally helped me loosen and untie some of the knots in the chains.
I've found that forgiveness does the same for the other knots.
The necklaces hang free now on pretty hooks by my dresser.
Nice. I feel inspired.
Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Monday, March 05, 2007
Emerging Women
I got home late, late Saturday night from 30 hours with 30 women, most of whom are students at UCLA. The ladies are part of the network of Passion Church and they were together all weekend for a retreat planned by Wonderful Wendy of 24-7prayer. She gathered a team and I was very honored to be on it.
Because Byron is away, I opted to come home last night as I felt my kids needed me at home today. Or maybe I needed them. Or maybe we needed each other :-)
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that God is really moving among women in this generation. I am SO happy about that!
In the last month I have been very privileged to be invited to attend two gatherings for college-aged women. The first one was in Santa Barbara and the second was where in LA. I was asked to be present as a mom-type.
( Am I a mom-type? I think so. I like this catagory and like my holy job of mothering. I like some other things I do too, but this is my favorite work.)
Both gatherings focused on healing and wholeness. Friday night we went straight into it first thing. We literally began by sharing our names and then went around the circle and spoke our memory of the coldest day of our lives. I told them about being molested by a neighbor when I was 8. Women shared things that might register as "less" traumatic, as well as things significantly more so. Not that we can measure trauma, but I think you know what I mean.
Saturday morning Angie Steinke led us through some thoughts about healing and the path through forgiveness that takes us there. Then we spent the whole afternoon in prayer. The six of us "leaders" broke into three pairs and each team spent 30-60 mins with individual girls until each one had been prayed with.
As you can imagine, it was an intense day.
Enter, the men!
The men of Passion Church surprised the women by cooking dinner and bringing it to the venue where we were gathered. The meal concluded with fresh strawberries and bananas and chocolate fondue to dip them in!
After time in worship, the men began praying wonderful prayers of release, wholeness, empowerment, fulfillment and fullness over the women. They prayed that these women would be CEO's and leaders all over the world, that they would be free from cultural bondages, that they would be released from strongholds and wounds, that they would be all that God dreams they can be.
Finally, the men produced a big box of individually wrapped white roses, each one labeled with a woman's name and signed with love.
(BTW, while the gathering in SB was just a one evening deal, it was also amazing and the men there were also incredibly supportive of the women. They didn't make an appearance but they gave their support in other ways.)
Honestly, I am still smiling about the time this weekend. Though I ducked out early and missed today's session teaching the women how to spread the healing, I gained so much by just getting to witness what God is doing and offer my prayers as some sort of partnering in that.
Once again I fall in love with this beautiful generation.
I am blessed to be allowed in to hear their stories of terrible pain.
I am rocked completely to watch the Lord move in healing among them.
Because Byron is away, I opted to come home last night as I felt my kids needed me at home today. Or maybe I needed them. Or maybe we needed each other :-)
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that God is really moving among women in this generation. I am SO happy about that!
In the last month I have been very privileged to be invited to attend two gatherings for college-aged women. The first one was in Santa Barbara and the second was where in LA. I was asked to be present as a mom-type.
( Am I a mom-type? I think so. I like this catagory and like my holy job of mothering. I like some other things I do too, but this is my favorite work.)
Both gatherings focused on healing and wholeness. Friday night we went straight into it first thing. We literally began by sharing our names and then went around the circle and spoke our memory of the coldest day of our lives. I told them about being molested by a neighbor when I was 8. Women shared things that might register as "less" traumatic, as well as things significantly more so. Not that we can measure trauma, but I think you know what I mean.
Saturday morning Angie Steinke led us through some thoughts about healing and the path through forgiveness that takes us there. Then we spent the whole afternoon in prayer. The six of us "leaders" broke into three pairs and each team spent 30-60 mins with individual girls until each one had been prayed with.
As you can imagine, it was an intense day.
Enter, the men!
The men of Passion Church surprised the women by cooking dinner and bringing it to the venue where we were gathered. The meal concluded with fresh strawberries and bananas and chocolate fondue to dip them in!
After time in worship, the men began praying wonderful prayers of release, wholeness, empowerment, fulfillment and fullness over the women. They prayed that these women would be CEO's and leaders all over the world, that they would be free from cultural bondages, that they would be released from strongholds and wounds, that they would be all that God dreams they can be.
Finally, the men produced a big box of individually wrapped white roses, each one labeled with a woman's name and signed with love.
(BTW, while the gathering in SB was just a one evening deal, it was also amazing and the men there were also incredibly supportive of the women. They didn't make an appearance but they gave their support in other ways.)
Honestly, I am still smiling about the time this weekend. Though I ducked out early and missed today's session teaching the women how to spread the healing, I gained so much by just getting to witness what God is doing and offer my prayers as some sort of partnering in that.
Once again I fall in love with this beautiful generation.
I am blessed to be allowed in to hear their stories of terrible pain.
I am rocked completely to watch the Lord move in healing among them.
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