Monday, September 26, 2016

Disclaimer Request



I would like to make a formal request of church retreat planners.  If your retreat is going to speak only to married women / men, please put a disclaimer on your retreat brochure.  This way singles (whether divorced, widowed or single because they found Mr. / Miss Right-for-them) will know what they are walking into.

Since my disclaimer request will probably be taken with a grain of salt, I would ask for your forgiveness when pre-retreat, I inquire about the speaker’s audience.  And should I decide to attend another retreat, mark it down that I will inquire.

Asking me to sing a song about giving my hopes & dreams to Jesus (leaving them at His beautiful feet) and then spending the next 45ish minutes speaking from Titus 2 to married women about how to love on their husbands and use grace & discipleship to win them Jesus tramples on all the encouragement retreat in and of itself offers the single person.

As I listened to the last session about discipleship and woe-ing your unsaved husband to the Lord, it made me see with fresh eyes that we have almost “glamorized” the verses that talk about how a woman’s quiet spirit and sweet testimony can win their unsaved spouse to the Lord.  Yes, the Bible says that…but when you glamorize this truth, do you know what it speaks to my single heart?  It makes me almost believe a lie that well, he’s nice but not fully saved (it’s either saved or lost…there’s no “not fully saved”) so maybe I should marry him so I can win him to Jesus.

I can see how girls (and let’s be honest – guys too) can fall for this. 

All I ask is for the disclaimer.  If you are going to talk to marrieds, please just put a little note on the brochure.

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