We had a really blessed time with my husband's longtime friend, Addis, and his family who visited us this last week from Texas. Addis was here to lead a one-day conference on Spiritual Gifts today at Church. The coolest part of the conference was that we never took a personality test, or defined each gift in order to identify which one we best resemble. He clearly addressed the importance of knowing those gifts, but chose to spend the limited time at the conference dealing with the spiritual foundation, motivation, and obstacles to using those gifts. Rather than give us a checklist of how-to-find, then how-to-serve, he focused on the heart issues of intimacy with the Lord, and how discovering spiritual gifts is a part of the action that inevitably takes place when your walk with the Lord is ever-growing. It was a significant time, and I personally feel challenged to take more seriously, how I spend my time, where my affections lie, and what my mind dwells on--for the sake of discovering my God-ordained joy in serving the body through my spiritual gifts. Before the conference, our two families visited the zoo, aquarium, and botanical gardens here in town. We had 7 children under the age of 6 between the two of us! We felt like we were running a preschool! It was a great time...here are some pictures:
