Hey Girls,
Paige Elliot asked me if she could share with you all what the Lord taught her at Girls Retreat! I hope you are challenged by what the Lord is doing in her life! I am amzaed at the ways the Lord worked throughout the weekend. I will be posting pictures in the next couple of days. Love you all!
Britt
Hey Girls!
I wanted to share a few of the really cool things I heard from older and wiser women at the girl’s retreat a couple weeks ago. (They deserve a huge pat on the back for taking the time to come and teach us and hang out with us, by the way.)
One of the breakout sessions the high schoolers went to was “Dating, Good and Best”. Traci Jenkins was leading it and she said some of the best things I’ve ever heard about Christian dating. She said that our goal as Christians in life is to glorify God, and we can do that in our dating as well.
The first way she talked about to bring glory to God in dating is to have a deep satisfaction in God and obedience in His word. She said that without these, you have no business dating. Wow… that was harsh sounding to me at first. But what her point was is that you have to be completely satisfied in God before you can ever find satisfaction in a guy. Psalm 37:4 says: “Delight yourself in the Lord” (first) “and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Without being complete in God, we definitely won’t find completion in a guy.
Then she said that the second way to glorify God in dating was to have a commitment to guard the sacredness of sex. Hebrews 13:4 says: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure.”
She said that the longer the list of things that aren’t a big deal to do before marriage, the shorter the list of really special things that you and your husband will share after marriage. She said the question isn’t “how far is too far?” but “how much of myself am I saving for marriage?” That really challenged me to total purity; not just not having sex, but being pure in my whole lifestyle. What are the little things that we consider okay, but that really are things we should be saving only for our husband?
Traci also handed out this thing called “Believe and Be Satisfied” I want to share a part of it with you:
“Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone. To have a deep relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively. But God, to the Christian, says no, not until you are satisfied and fulfilled and content with living, loved by me alone. I love you my child, and until you discover that only in me is your satisfaction to be found, you will not be capable of the perfect human relationship that I have planned for you. You will never be united with another until you are united with me. I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow me to give you the most thrilling plan existing- one that you cannot imagine. I want you to have the best. Please let me bring it to you: you just keep watching me, expecting great things. Keep that satisfaction knowing that I AM. Keep learning and listening to the things I tell you. And you must wait. I love you utterly. I am God Almighty, believe and be satisfied.”
The theme of the weekend was Complete. John 15:11 says: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Are we complete in God, or are we trying to complete ourselves with other things?
Paige Elliott-9th grade
