Embracing the Father's Love

  The facilities here at the Haft serve for different purposes. Sometimes the people that come here are here for a refresher, a break, a time of refocusing. Sometimes the individuals or couples that come need some counseling. Sometimes (like the pastor coming next week) they want to come to write & just want a quiet place to do that. But sometimes they come as a group, like last weekend, for a retreat. Now the group that came last weekend was special because it was five couples who are near & dear to our hearts. So it was so fun to be a part of the retreat that we entitled the "Embracing the Father's Love Retreat". We watched a video series by Jack Frost, teaching about his experience of the Father's Love, & though I had watched these before, I seemed to have gotten more out of them the 2nd time around. Two key phrases that he used, stuck w/ me. The first one was, "The Father loves us the way we ARE, not the way we SHOULD be". Wow!! The 2nd one was this, "Love is a gift, not a reward for service". And of course there were many other things that spoke to me throughout the weekend, but the thought of God loving me in my imperfection is amazing to me. I cannot "do" something to cause him to love me more, & I cannot "not do" something that would cause him to love me less!!! And then the 2nd thought that I mentioned that stood out to me, caused me to think of my children. Do I love them based on performance or do I love no matter what?? Do I withhold love when I'm displeased with them?? See, the way we view the Father's love to us is the way we will react to others. If I think that the Heavenly Father's love is performance based, then there's a good chance that I myself live with a performance based mindset toward other people!!!
  The series was alot to take in in a short amount of time, & I'm still processing it. But I have a deeper revelation of the Father's love for me & a deeper understanding of the importance of loving without conditions. And I was reminded that anything done without love, is nothing! I reminded myself often this week, "If I homeschool my kids, & have not love, I have NOTHING. If I serve, live, give or anything else & have not love, I have NOTHING." You can fit all types of service in that sentence (feed the poor, have a knowledge, raise children etc.)- if you do it without love you have NOTHING!!!
   So like I said in the beginning of this post- there are many different uses for the Haft, they are of course always focused around refreshing, rebuilding, & retooling. And this past weekend was a great time of refreshing & retooling. Learning more, identifying things in our lives, walking thru areas, identifying strong holds & wrong mindsets, so we can have a deeper relationship with the Father. And then taking what we learned & appling it, acting on it. And as we change ourselves & our families, then ultimately we can make a difference in our world.