CREATED WITH LOVE

 The Florida Conference United Methodist Women Spiritual Enrichment Retreat was done by Zoom on Friday evening September 10, 2021 and Saturday September 11, 2021. The theme was Created with Love.

Dr. Marie Judith Pierre-Okerson welcomed everyone .

She acknowledged all the presidents of the districts in Florida.

Our own Anne Winn, ECD president.

Shelly Davidson introduced Latricia Scriven who had the program.

She was a very engaging speaker. She had us look in a mirror for 5 minutes and write down what we love about ourselves. We then broke into rooms to share how we felt about this activity.

 The scripture she shared was Eph. 2 :10 . We are God's masterpiece! 

We don't affirm ourselves enough. It is hard to love others when we don't love ourselves enough. 

Words are energy. What we think and say forms what we become. 

We are the living creation of God. We are amazing.

 She then assigned us homework to write down 5 positive statements about our self and to say it in the mirror each morning and evening.

She shared this poem.  " Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of  God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others "  Marianne Williamson

On Saturday Mr.  Frack  spoke to us about the Florida Children's Home

The scripture we looked at on Saturday was 1 John 3: 18-19. It says to not love in words but in deeds and truth. UMW is faith, hope and love in action.

 We then looked at 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. Again we looked in the mirror and into our hearts, which of the things mentioned in verse 4 -7 do you struggle with the most. We shared in our break out rooms. Often it was patience. Isn't God patient with us? God is still working with us.

What we believe about God matters. We need to be passionate about God. 

This was a singer who sang a song called "When Jesus Laughs"  She has such a happy face and the song was cute. Ha Ha Ha

This feeling wheel was shared. It is important to know how you are feeling and share it. There are no wrong feelings. Don't avoid your feelings not matter what they are. Become aware of them and talk to God about them.

The meeting ended with the a song that says " Rest is Holy. Rest is Worship. When we rest Jesus smiles."

Stop and wait.

Meditate.

Think and be still.