Words of blessing

I went to a women's retreat with my church a couple of weeks ago. I have never experienced anything quite like it... we prayed a scripted prayer to cast out evil spirits that might keep us rooted in sin. The theological issues I had with it aside, it was a good experience overall. I had to look inside myself to see what kind of issues that I really need to resolve.

But, the thing that stuck out to me the most was the "blessing ceremony" we had at the end. We were put with "prayer partners" for the exorcising exercises, so at the end, we prayed blessings over each other. The leaders gave the example of how parents yell curses at their children by telling them they aren't good enough, or they won't amount to anything. Many of the women nodded their heads to show their personal experience with these curses. I couldn't, though.

It made me think about how great my parents are. I could not think of a single time when they ever said anything negative over me. Certainly I messed up and disappointed them, but they always believed that I was capable of doing better. I started thinking about how their encouragement has inspired me to keep pursuing my goals.

The blessing ceremony also made me realize that I don't bless the people around me nearly enough. I always fear that people will think I'm being fake, or that I'm strange. That's not a good excuse, though.


Anyway, Matt's graduation ceremony is this weekend. We're going to have tons of family--I'm really looking forward to it! I'm so thankful we've gotten through this semester. Matt's starting the PhD program in fall, and I'm almost finished with coursework for my program. We've also been married for almost a year! Wow, life sure does go by quickly!!