Quartz Mountain

Click on the graphic and you’ll end up in Wikipedia with a lot of geological info about these rocks popping up north of Altus, county seat of Jackson county, Oklahoma. They are striking, but Coloradoans would giggle for our calling these “mountains.” They’ve been part of family stories from my childhood – my folks grew up in Jackson county and were married in Altus. We nicknamed our “Soda Pop” uncle based on his managerial skills at the 7-Up bottling plant there mid-20th century. My aunt was secretary at the Methodist church for many years. Visits to my grandparents gave my cousins opportunities to drive us around the square and stop at specific spots to chat with their friends. Not my home town, but my family’s.

Thirteen ladies from our church drove through Altus on our way to Quartz Mountain for a Ladies Retreat this past Friday and Saturday, thanks to the Tabernacle Baptist Church! Those ladies excel at hospitality, cooking, witnessing and giving testimonies of their love for our Lord!

The theme was “Women of Worth”:

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:10-12 KJV)

We learned so much!! We learned a definition for fear:

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

Think about that, please. How many of our fears are real? Mostly we’re afraid of what we imagine will be, not knowing what are valid expectations. I could list them here, but would probably miss yours, so let’s look at mine for a moment.

I feared my husband’s death. Three years ago, following his first myasthenia crisis, I feared that it would happen again. Feared we would not be able to get him to the hospital in time. I would lose him. Hey, we’re here – and I listened Saturday morning to a Christian sister who did lose her husband. She survives, with tears at time, but quite well enough to share her love of God with a room full of ladies. This is life.

Another Christian sister told us not to live with the phrase, “If things were different …” Things are not different. Things are exactly as they are where we are today and it is up to us to move forward from the point we realize “things” will only be different if we are.

Some of what we need to be a Woman of Worth:

W – wisdom
O – openness
R – roots
T – thankfulness
H – happy

No – I’m not going into all the paragraphs/scriptures that go with that acronym (though you might get some of them in future blogs!!)

The songs in the program were written by a woman I’ve long considered worthy - Frances Jane (Crosby) van Alstyne – better remembered as Fanny Crosby. I’d list the songs, but they might not include your favorite and you should be humming it right now. Go ahead and enjoy it, we sure did!!

We also played games, participated in funny skits and became acquainted with 80-some other ladies. Now, truthfully, did you have as much fun with close friends? Plan on joining us next year – if you can’t join us, find a good church nearby and put on a program yourself!! We’d be happy to share skits with you, pray for you and pray that God will bless you, too.