Retreating with DH

For just over a week now, my DH has been off work, which has been a real blessing.

Uually we take this "extra" days to go away for a few days, but this time it hasn´t been financially possible, so we have been enjoying the open fire in our chimney and taking a few trips here and there but making sure that we are back when the kids got out of school.


These are the moments when we really catch up with each other and enjoy some long talks and praying together. We took advantage to update our worship songs repetoire both in German (we have been invited to lead worsip at a marriage retreat in Germany at the end of this month) and in Spanish which has been a project left pending for way too long.

It does require time to sit down and embrace the new songs and learn them, but it has been a really blessing to allow God to minister to both of us... especially me. There are some new songs that I could really identify with and seem to be "annointed" for the moment.

Looking at the German songs has been a challenge as we have not led worship in German for over 15 years!!! You can say that fast, but boy it´s a long time and it's easy to feel a little overwhelmed and insecure getting back into it.

We made a head start but we still need some more time to really feel free and flow in these things.. God is gracious and treats us so tenderly.

God´s tenderness amazes me every time....catches me by surprize and humbles me. When you feel most vulnerable God meets you with His tenderness and not judgement, with grace and not critisism, and with love and not rejection. It´s the father meeting the prodigal son as he sees him "far off" and runs to meet him. Isn´t that so beautiful?


I am so glad he weighs the motives of the heart. He sees my feeble attempts to reach out for Him and stretch out for new things He meets me right there. He doesn't expect perfection before allowing me be used.... I feel that I am bathing in this truth more than ever before.


I am enjoying the fact that, as I mention in a previous post, I don't have the energy at present to worry about what people think or trying to impress anyone.... a weakness I will probably struggle with all of my life until I am completly free in heaven!!!!

I have been so tired from events that happen before Christmas, that it has left me without fight in me to prove myself if you know what I mean... which naturally is very good.

It´s what Paul talks about when he says... "...may He increase and I decrease" .... May God be more evident and real that any of my talents and abilities... which He gave me in the first place!!!!

A few days ago "Word for the day from UCB" they have been talking about gifts and character. Here is an excert taken from the daily devotion for Feb 1st:

Scriptural keys to success in life (1)
01 Feb 2008

" 'A man's gift makes room for him.' PROVERBS 18:16
Your giftedness will get you noticed, separate you from the rest of the pack

and give you a head start on others...................

"Mega-best-selling author Stephen King asserts that,

'Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented

individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.' Much of

that work takes place in your character and your private world.

Haven't you known people who should have risen to the top but didn't?

They had all the talent they'd ever need, but they didn't succeed.

Their talent made them stand out but their lack of integrity made them sit down.

Their friends, families, coaches and bosses saw their giftedness

but wondered why they kept falling short of expectations.

Their talent opened the door but their wrong choices shut it. " "

God is more interested in my character than in my gifts and talents... I want my charcter to be able to hold up my talents and this requires hard work, much purifying and heaps full of humility and recognizaton that:
without Him I can do nothing that is of value but WITH Him I can do all things! Only in God can I and do I become all He has dreamt me to be!