Our annual Church Retreat

February 20-22, 2008 we headed up to Rome, GA for our annual church retreat. It is always alot of fun and relaxing with lots of bonding time with our church family. David & I always splurge on the nice King Size suites up at the Winshape Retreat Center where we enjoy good quality sleep so we don't come home exhausted - which is always nice. ;0)

My leg had been bothering me so I chilled most of the weekend and enjoyed lots of girly time with some of the ladies I don't know so well at church. After hanging out with them, I am looking forward to more of that in the days to come! I also got to spend alot of time chatting with Leigh-Ann (she is the wife in the couple that lived with us 2 summers ago) which was also really nice. It was great to catch up without the husbands.

David spent most of his time playing sports with the guys and youth and did the rock climbing wall on Saturday afternoon. Since I was in full gab mode at that point I didn't venture over to watch, but from what I heard everyone had a great time. Saturday night a full on game of Bunco ensued led by Leigh-Ann & Anthony...I took pictures of all the fun. Here's just a few highlights for you to enjoy from the weekend.

Family Worship TimeLydia CrabbJim, our fearless leader?...maybe

our Friend & Pastor...definitelyMy friend Elizabeth (and Jim's wife ;0) - I love this picture of her!Leigh-Ann & IDavid playing Bunco

The theme of the weekend was Faith, Hope & Love. Our speaker was Mark Taylor and he did a great job of teaching us about our relationships, both with the Lord & each other. On Saturday he gave us a chart with 5 circles similar to this one I (very roughly) recreated:

We were to categorize our relationships from people we had connected with over the last week or so into the appropriate circle. The outer circle was for strangers, and moving towards the center: acquaintances, friendship, personal & finally intimate in the center. After we had completed that portion, he posed this question: "Would the people on your chart put you into the same categories?" That was easy to answer for the most part, but there were several friends that I had to carefully examine.

Last week was particularly difficult as I struggled through this task. I have consistently been classified by my friends as giving and caring. I try to be a good friend and I carefully (probably more so than I actually should) select those I welcome into my personal circle. I have been burned alot over my lifetime by broken trust, so it takes me a while to move a friendship into a more personal realm. I hate to say it like this, but I start with small things and work my way up testing to make sure I can trust them. It can take a long time for someone to move into my "inner circle". What pains me is when someone moves out, often without my knowing, into an "outer circle". It is really hard for me to see relationships change that I long to keep. I can see the friendship slipping away and the distance growing, but I'm helpless to stop it. The coffin was closed on one such relationship last week and I had a hard time letting go. I don't begrudge someone the opportunity to move on, but it doesn't make it any less difficult when they choose to go and you have to let them.

So that was me last week. I'm still working through the hurt and disappointment, but it will pass as time goes on.