Weekend of blessings

I am certain that I will write more about the past weekend in the next few days but right now, I want to say that God is so good and He truly blessed me on our trip to Nashville for the youth workers convention that Chris and I attended with three others from our church. First of all, B, D, and C are all fantastic Godly women. They are loving and sweet and awesome people! So I shouldn't have been nervous....but God truly blessed our time together and He blessed our conversation. I have to say that this weekend was very therapeutic for me. Here's some ways I was blessed:

1) Bonding...truly bonding with C, B, and D. B and D are my age too and that is such a blessing. I have been praying for godly women to come into my life that I could develop deep friendships with. This and they are truly an answer to my prayers and some of the prayers that my best friends prayed for me too.

2) Prayer. Oh my goodness, prayer. I spent so much time in God's presence this weekend and it was incredible. I walked through fifteen stations of the cross on a contemplative prayer journey. I checked out Taize (a monastic reflective worship style) worship which is an incredible contemplative meditation and prayer worship time. I did prayer through creative art and prayed in different body positions. It was a blessing to me to simply spend time God in many different ways but to simply focus on Him. I am seriously thinking about turning our basement into a prayer chapel. I think that it would be incredible to have a cozy and relaxing place to just purposefully go and spend time with Jesus. You know?

3) Worship. It. Was. Incredible. Starfield was the group that I liked the most in their style of leading worship. We poured out our hearts and really sang how much we just, quite simply, loved Jesus because He is awesome and incredible. When I worship, it's also a blessing to me to believe that Samantha is in the very presence of God and that she is worshipping Him too! I can't wait until heaven calls. When I am worshipping, I realize that is what I made to do. There's no other time I feel this way.

4) Marital growth. Chris and I had some really good, reflective talks and grew tremendously.

5) Laughter...oh the stories that I will laugh about for years!

Anyhow, that's all I have time to write about right now but it was a fantasmic weekend. God is so good. He is so faithful. D, B, C, and Chris, thank you being joyful, tender, healing balm to my wounded spirit. Thank you letting God use you. I am so blessed!
(Love,)
~Shannon