First Retreat—What We Learned

The primary topic of the first retreat was the same as our theme for this year: the Cross. More specifically, we discussed how a growing awareness of God’s holiness and a growing awareness of our sinfulness result in a growing awareness of the greatness of the Cross. Also, we talked about two ways we shrink the Cross to our own size: Pretending and Performing.

The illustration taken from our study book “The Gospel-Centered Life” looks like this:

Makes sense, yes?

But we don’t live like that. We pretend to ourselves and to others that we are better than we are. We—I—don’t acknowledge the depth of my own sin. There is nothing good in me. Yet I pretend there is. I think that I’m pretty good. I’m not as bad as that guy over there at any rate. I’m clean and pure compared to him. (Sound like anyone you’ve read about? Check out Luke 18:9-14, the parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector). Not that I’ve ever actually really formed those thoughts as it were, but my attitude has been one of superiority based on good deeds.

Which leads into performing. If I am good, if I do such and such, then God is obligated to do thus and so. He’ll look on me with favor. If I don’t do good, He’ll frown upon me. If I sin, I just need to try harder next time. As if I could attain to God’s holiness of my own.

So in reality, my life illustrated has looked more like the picture below (also from the book):

That needs to change. So will all of you please pray with me that I will stop pretending, and stop trying to perform to earn God’s favor and learn to see Him for Who He is and me for who I am? Thanks.


One of the biggest things that I took away from this weekend was the truth of the equation of the Cross. I’ve always known that Christ’s death took away my sin. And I’ve known that God gave me His righteousness. But I’ve never put the two together. Christ’s death did more than cancel out the debt I owed. It overflowed and filled my account with righteousness.

As an accountant, I immediately pictured a journal entry. Before this past weekend, I had thought of the entry looking like this:

The Cross       ------
My Sin                      ------

The entry balances and all is good. But that’s the wrong entry. There was another account involved: God’s righteousness. So the proper entry is:

The Cross                           --------
       My Sin                                       ------
       God’s Righteousness               ------

And I can never exhaust the greatness of His riches toward me.

The Cross paid for so much more than my sin. It wasn’t—isn’t—just enough to cover the sin. God doesn’t have to draw on a different account to fill me with His righteousness. Christ is enough.

And if I begin to live like that, how will I change?

How will you?

First Retreat—What We Did

This past weekend was the first retreat of The Program. It was in-town but the house we were at (mansion more like) was surrounded by trees so that you could only catch a glimpse of the nearest house. It almost felt like we were in another world.

The retreat began with supper at what is known as the Clifford House. It’s a red house, hence the name. Several girls who have gone through The Program before live there and provided us with a delicious meal. Afterward, we made our way back to Ann’s mansion where we had session one. Session one was followed by the first of the “Creative Introductions” and then we sat around and talked for a while filling in our “Rookie Books” (little booklets with names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, and blanks for everyone’s favorite things). Bedtime came around midnight.

Morning brought a delicious breakfast (homemade cinnamon rolls!), Session two and more intros. Lunch followed then Session three. We then proceeded on another treasure hunt across town which ended at The Hangar at DBC. Our final piece was buried in the sand volleyball court. We dug for about 15 minutes and couldn’t find it. Even the girl who buried it couldn’t figure out where it ended up. So we called it quits and sat in the shade eating popsicles while the girls who did The Program last year turned the hunt into a good illustration of how we need to dig and search to find the treasures of God’s Word.

We were all so wiped out from the heat that Jean declared a recess for the remainder of the afternoon. We chatted a little, finished filling in Rookie Books and a few stretched out on the floor to rest. I curled up on the couch and dozed for the forty-five minutes or so until supper.

Supper was at the Wilderness House—another house where previous program girls live that just happens to be on Wilderness Road—and then Session four was back at Ann’s. We finished up a bit after 9:00PM, helped clean up and everyone scattered to their respective homes.

So that is what we did during the weekend. What we learned/discussed will come later. Suffice it to say for now that it was good. Very good.

Creative Intro

Our first retreat for the women's program was this weekend  It was a good time of fellowship and learning (more on that later).  In between study sessions we did "creative intros."  Mine is below.  It was written at midnight so it's a bit rough.  The other girls did everything from slideshows, to quizzes, to making cake batter.

My name is Brittanie and Lassiter and Leigh
I’ve lived at home with my family

Five brothers have I, and I think you’ll agree
They’re a handsome lot for you to see

My family is dearest, most precious to me
I’ll fight for them ardently with all that I be

To friends I am faithful and loyal and true
But time it may take before I call you

It’s homeschooled I was for all of my life
Until, of course, I tried college life

Accountant I am and tennis coach too
And writer, and sister, and daughter—woohoo!

Of fictional people in literature
Sam Gamgee’s my favorite, of that you be sure

I can’t stand spiders, small or great
(My brothers are awesome at sealing their fates!)

I swim like a rock—straight down to the deep
I sleep like one too—won’t hear a peep

I love lasagna and pumpkin pie
And cake that is carrot and tea that is chai

I’ve danced and I’ve sung, though not very much
Enough to know how hard can be such

I’ve written a book for the teens and the tweens
‘Bout swords made of light and a king there unseen

I’m a little bit crazy, a little bit sane
I sometimes go by an Elvish name

And now at last I am come to the end
Of all the words I can think to pen

So thank you my ladies for hearing my rhyme
May God’s blessings follow throughout all of time

DBC WDTP—First Meeting

Tonight was the first night of the DBC Women’s Discipleship Training Program (hereafter referred to as “The Program”). I was a little nervous going into it but not much. I was actually more apprehensive about the drive to the house where we met than the evening itself!

We had received e-mails telling us to wear clothes we could get hot, dirty, and wet in and to bring a water bottle and wear good shoes. The reason for this was that we did a combination “Amazing Race” and scavenger hunt. It was fun.

My team called itself the “E” team. Why? Because all of our names ended in an “E” sound. Brittanie, Maggie, Abby, and Patty. Somehow we got called the Puerto Rico team by those running it off though. I think they thought Patty’s shirt said “Puerto Rico” on it. (It didn’t)

Task the first was a relay race. I carried an egg in a spoon in my mouth, Patty shot a basketball while singing “Jesus Loves Me,” Abby tossed two water balloons into the bucked that I held, and Maggie fished a piece of gum out of a plate of flour and blew a bubble with it. And the race was on.

I raced inside to grab my purse while the other three ran to my car. We piled in and took off. Turned the wrong direction, made a u-turn, and got back on track. Our clue told us to perform a “Noble Feat” at the Golden Triangle. Said feat was to make as many words out of “discipleship” as we could in five minutes while sitting at tables outside the Barnes and Noble at the mall. I think we came up with thirty.

Our next clue led us to the town square. We beat everyone there—despite being the last to show up at B&N. There we were given various handicaps and had to make it from one side of the town hall to the other. I was mute. Patty was blind. Maggie was blind and couldn’t use her arms. Abby was blind and couldn’t use her legs. I am very glad I was not in Abby’s position. As it was, Patty quickly grabbed the other two blind girls before they could wander off and I picked up Abby (Piggy back style) and we took off. It was hilarious. They were asking questions about where we were going, what were we doing, am I to heavy, what now, etc. and I couldn’t answer them because I was mute. We raced around the building got to the other cone—and no one was there. I left my poor, blind teammates for a moment and looked around to make sure there wasn’t another cone. They were thoroughly confused. Then I broke silence and told them what was up, just as one of the leaders raced around the corner. We had beaten them there. Ha.

Clue in hand, we ran back to the car and headed for our next destination. We also started looking at the list of “extra” things to do to earn points. At the park, we found five green objects (among which were a lei and spray bottle) and completed that task. While there, we did some of the extras. Patty spoke to a man in Spanish and he responded and she talked to his six-year-old and got his life story. Then we found some picnickers and sang to them.

Since that was our last destination and we had 45 minutes before we had to report back, we decided to do some more extras. Stopping at a pharmacy, we grabbed a half-gallon of milk and I started drinking (I had to drink a quart for the points). We headed for a Wal-Mart near the finish line, spotted some longhorns along the way and hopped out for a photo shoot. At Wal-Mart, we danced the congo down an aisle, Abby sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to an older couple, Maggie jumped into a kiddie pool (no one said the pool had to have water in it), and Patty modeled a dress for a short photo shoot.

With 15 minutes to deadline, we headed back to the house. Somewhere along the line, Abby called my mom for an embarrassing story. At the house, we decided not to report in yet, found our list of extra things to do (we’d been working off a picture of the list) and did a few more. Abby, Maggie, and I did a cheerleader stunt while Patty took the picture. Then we all climbed a tree (no one said we had to be in the tree at the same time). And Abby managed to contact a friend and play a prank on her.  In addition, I had been careful the entire time to not go over the speed limit.

That, we decided, was enough and we trooped in to turn in our sheets. We showed off our pictures and laughed at others while the leaders calculated the totals. Turns out, one of the groups did a wheelbarrow with their blind and lame member while the other team had someone crawl with them on their back. It’s no wonder we were faster since we all were walking.
And the drumroll came….Team Puerto Rico was victorious! By a fair margin it sounded like. Our prizes were water bottles. Nice ones too.
After declaring the victors, we all lined up for ice cream and peach cobbler. Good stuff that. Then we just hung around and chatted. A fair number of the girls had brothers or brothers-in-law that did Tommy Nelson’s Young Guns and heard about The Program through them. It was kinda neat.
Tomorrow night is our “Creative Introductions” and the beginning of an in-town weekend retreat. It should be fun. I really liked the girls I met tonight and look forward to getting to know all of them better. I think it is going to be a great nine months. Difficult, perhaps, but good and well worth the time.
Until later!