Wow, I got out to the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and could hardly talk, the location was so intensely beautiful. The Rocky Mountains swoop down to a mountain lake that is surrounded by multiple beautiful buildings of this luxury hotel. I miss my husband and kids, but I couldn’t resist sending Jeff - and my staff! - an email with the view from my room of the lake and the mountains. Not that I WANT to make them jealous or anything..
This event was a special one for me because Focus on the Family has been such a great encouragement in my life and I was so pleased to have a chance to encourage them in return. This was a retreat for the major donors to Focus, that they do every two years, to bring these high-impact women together and relax and renew and rejuvenate in a gorgeous setting that reminds us all of the magnificent Creator who made these beautiful mountains! Being away for four long days all at once is not my ideal because of missing my kids, but this was one that I knew I had to do - to get a chance to encourage these women who give so much of themselves is a precious thing to me. I have four sessions here - one each day. And during the day on Friday I joined the women as they visited Focus to hear of the impact that the group is having around the world. I told these ladies on the very first night, that I doubt they can really fathom just how INCREDIBLY high-impact Focus is in dozens and dozens of completely different areas of ministry around the world. I know so many people in the secular media look askance at Focus because it is a conservative group - but truly, they are not just about conservative, Christian policy impact. Their efforts literally save and transform millions of lives and marriages and families around the world, through their daily broadcasts, their magazines, their dozens of ministries to the hurting, their international impact on adoption of at-risk kids - you name it, Focus is having an impact. What an incredible privilege to be a small part of what they are doing.
At lunch on Friday, the women and I had lunch with Dr. and Mrs Dobson and he spent some time answering questions and even asked me to respond to one that was from a wife about her difficult husband. I was so hesitant to speak up, when Dr. Dobson has spent decades learning so much more than I, but was grateful for the chance to share. And as I drove away from the building, back to the hotel, looking at the mountains, I was overwhelmed by the same thought that King David had: Who the heck am I, and who is my family, that you would use me like this, Lord? I’m utterly, totally humbled to be in this position in which God has seen fit to use me. I pray all the time that I would be able to do a good job of stewarding this task.