From the Mountaintop

I had the honor of joining a group of ladies from a local church to attend a women's conference in Branson, Missouri. I only knew a couple of ladies in the group, a few are dear friends and the rest I had no idea who they were. I went into the weekend with few expectations beyond knowing we would be staying at a resort that has beautiful views from cliffs, bluffs and mountains ... maybe they aren't technically mountains but to me they are because I live on the flat prairie of southern Illinois. I did go into the weekend with a lot of thoughts about carrying the momentum after a spiritual mountaintop experience. After being home a few days, I still have the songs from the weekend streaming through my mind and the words spoken are still lingering and rolling around as I consider, What do I do with this experience?

I don't know exactly what the answer is to this question but I do know that there is an action I must take. Maybe the answer is that I make the effort to spend more time with other women of faith. When I say more time, I mean time outside of the usual Sunday morning gatherings. Sunday mornings really just skim the surface of what church is meant to be. It's checking in with each other, it's building relationships that go beyond the church building walls, it's gathering to pray and study throughout the week. If we're really honest, we want Sunday morning church...not full life church. When we strive for full life church, it positively impacts every aspect of our lives. We truly become the church, not just the church being a place we go. This isn't easy for women. Taking time away from our families, our kids, our jobs, our commitments that we have prioritized over deepening our spiritual well is challenging. We think we'll have time for that when our kid are older. We will find many excuses to not participate and make time for getting together with a Jesus-loving, girl squad. Doing our individual Bible studies are good, spending time with Jesus each day is good, but there is so much more that happens when we come together with other women who are on the same journey of drawing nearer to Him. The laugher, the tears, the deep discussions, the affirmations, and even the Biblical truths that might cut a little...we NEED this, friends!

I encourage you to get together with your Jesus-loving, truth- seeking, girl squad this week and just look at how you can facilitate more time together, and bring others into your circle. A circle of women welcomed me into their mountaintop experience and it was something beautiful that every woman of every age should experience because it's those you worship with on the mountaintop that you want walking with you in the valleys.