Where Have I Been???

What a slacker I have been!! It has been almost a month since I've posted anything. Well, let me catch you up on the rest of March and beginning of April.

At the end of March, my lovely friends from New York flew me up to help with a Mother/Daughter Retreat. What a blessing that was for me!! It was so good to see them and be apart of the weekend. The theme for the weekend was True Beauty with the theme verse being from Psalm 34:5, "Those who look to Him are radiant." The weekend was full of fun and even included the Island of Beauty Pageant. For more on the pageant, click here. On a more serious note, the weekend challenged me to love the Lord more! In one of the sessions, the speaker really brought home the fact that if we love God, we will obey His commandments. The emphasis wasn't on obeying, but on loving. Many times when we hear this taught or preached the emphasis is on obeying the Lord. The focus then becomes on obeying and trying to obey and doing, doing, doing. All of this is in our own strength which is often why we fail at obeying. Her emphasis was on loving. If we love the Lord, then we will naturally obey Him from the overflow of our love for Him. It just made sense. Where is our focus?? On Jesus as it should be and not on the things we are doing or not doing. It really challenged me to pray for a deeper and greater love for the Lord. Fill me with your love so that I obey out of love and not just because I am told do such and such. This really made me clearly see where I can be legalistic in our faith. Are we doing it just to obey or is it because we just love the Lord so much we can't wait to do what He is telling us? Impactful.

After the retreat, I headed home. The next weekend ADB left for a golf tournament. They left on Thursday and came back on Sunday. It was a weekend filled with golf with 16 other men. I think he was in his dream world for a bit. Although his team didn't win (boo hoo), he did hit the longest drive and he even won a prize. You go babe! The prize...Coffee!! What a fitting prize for ADB (he loves coffee).

Then on Tuesday, we had our Banquet for the ministry we work for. ADB and I were in charge of the set up and organization. There were about 450 people there...a big event. So Monday and Tuesday were spent getting ready and doing last minute things for the banquet. Crazy!! In the end, it was a great banquet...now to start planning for next year. Well, not really.

I wish I had a picture to post because it is spring down here in the south. All the trees are flowering, things are turning green. I just love this time of year. Maybe I will take a picture soon and post it so I can share this spring cheer.

Another Tapawingo

When I first came to know my little place of joy aka "Tapawingo". I thought to myself, what an unusual name. I'm sure they must have made this up. After working there for some summers, I found out that there are several places named Tapawingo. A restaurant and yes even other camps, not to mention another girls camp. So, this threw off my idea that they made up this name. As I continue to venture through this great thing called life, I continue to find places called Tapawingo. Just the other day, ADB came home from a men's breakfast with a flyer for a men's retreat. As I perused this flyer (because I want to know all the fun things they will do) I saw the name "Tapawingo". I thought, "How can men and Tapawingo ever be associated together? This is strictly a men's thing he is going to." (A little background here, the Tapawingo I know is an all girls camp. I worked there for many years.) Then I saw it...Tapawingo Golf. What?? A golf course named after my (okay, I know it isn't mine, but it is very dear to me) little precious island. How can this be?? So, I looked online to verify that it was really called Tapawingo. Much to my dismay, there it was. You can check it out yourself. Tapawingo National Golf Club. It is in St. Louis, MO. www.tapawingogolf.com

I guess for some men (including my husband) a golf course could be a place of joy. Tapawingo means place of joy. Well, if he does go on the retreat, I want him to visit this Tapawingo (I'm sure he will jump at the opportunity to place golf) and tell me if it compares to the little island where fond memories do linger. So, my dear Tapawingo sisters, yet another Tapawingo....add it to the list.