This past weekend Anita and I headed off to Winter Park for a spiritual retreat…and it was absolutely amazing! A friend from work, Emilie Erb, was gracious once again (we went last year too) to lend us her mountain retreat. As Anita put it, the point of the entire weekend was: NOTHING! We had no itinerary and no agenda outside of spending time together and time with God (and we accomplished both).

We slept in. We read. We prayed. We shopped (of course). We walked. We ate. We watched two movies.We got connected once again to one another and to God. Again, it was an amazing weekend!

Our focus for the weekend was praying for each of our kids. We talked about what was going on in each of their lives and how we could and should be praying for them. We talked about ourselves as parents and how we can do better. We talked about our own spiritual journeys. And we prayed…we asked God for guidance, for help, and for each one of our kid’s needs and futures.

We also spent some time praying and reading Scripture for ourselves. For me, God dealt with some old agreements as a father that He wanted to heal and restore. I also made three new commitments that will help me be a better dad to my kids. And God also shared His heart with me and asked me to slow down and just be with Him (abide in Him) and stop looking so far into the future…to be more present with Him now and enjoy the journey a little more.

I can’t adequately express what this weekend meant. It was fun, it was restful, it was needed. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. I am thankful that God provided the opportunity (thanks again Emilie!) and that we were able to make the time to get away and spend it with each other and with God. We came back home rested…rested physically, rested emotionally, and rested spiritually.

We didn’t take many pictures (didn’t fit with the NOTHING theme), but here are a couple we did take)… 

Don’t we look rested?

 
The Mountain Getaway
Thanks again Emilie!