God Things
This weekend, I traveled down to the lovely town of Leesburg, Virginia for a few reasons. First, I had registered to be trained as a leader of Precept Upon Precept Bible studies through Precept Ministries International. If you're not familiar with Precepts or the inductive Bible study method, you can read more about it here.
Essentially, it's 3 stages:
1. Observation - What does the text of the Bible say?
2. Interpretation - What does the text mean?
3. Application - What does this mean for my life? How do I apply these truths to my daily walk with the Lord?
I've been doing Precept Bible studies since college when a very lovely lady taught me how to do it at one of our women's retreats. I've been blessed ever since.
Our training was held at the Loudoun campus of McLean Bible Church in this beautiful building.
We were so blessed to have the regional director of training conducting our workshop.
There were so many wonderful women and men there who desired to lead their own Precept Upon Precept studies, get more tools for doing their own personal study, and others who were there to figure out if leading a class was something the Lord had in store for them.
We prayed, we praised, we pried open the Word of God, and we all left changed.
In between our sessions, I navigated my way around the rather bustling and busy highways of Leesburg. Everything seemed like it was on a grand scale - the clothes, the cars, the houses.
Until I got to the historic part of Leesburg. Aaah! That was much more like it. I saw adorable shops and immediately thought, "my people!"
I visited some local places for my meals and chatted it up with the staff. Everyone was very nice.
And then Sunday came around. It was time to visit...
drumroll please
The Lucketts Spring Market
The Spring Market is a conglomeration of vendors sporting everything from vintage finds to painted furniture to unique textiles and killer barbeque. It's held on the grounds of the Old Lucketts Store.
The only reason why I knew it existed was because this was the store where Miss Mustard Seed was a vendor for a little bit in her early years of running her business. She comes every year and sets up her booth with her beautiful pieces and this year, I was going to meet her! I had no idea that my training was falling on the same exact weekend as Lucketts.
Ya'll...You just can't make this stuff up.
I was there first thing at 10:00 and was treated to what I believe to be heaven on earth. (Or at least what I think my room will be like in heaven.)
Upholstered chairs, painted dressers, wire baskets, typewriter jewelry, grain sack bags, ironstone, rusty gates, shutters, barn wood signs....
I'm not going to lie. I was drooling a little bit.
There were even young chickens in a coop.
Welcome, indeed!
I went inside the Old Lucketts Store to see where the magic all began.
There was so much to look at!
Industrial gems.
The highly-coveted (and usually too expensive for me) card catalogs.
Topiary accents.
Clever touches if you're careful enough to spot them.
Confirmations of who I want to be.
I could have wandered in there forever. There was just so much to look at.
There were some really clever and unique "statement" booths like 2 Chix and a Barn. They had a vintage Airstream named "Pearl" and they allowed me to take a peek inside.
I bought the cutest little bag from them.
The Robin's Nest had a wicked awesome teepee that you could take pictures in and tag yourself on social media.
And some killer jewelry to match.
And then the moment I had been waiting for all weekend. (And to be honest, the moment I was quasi-avoiding because I was nervous.)
Miss Mustard Seed's booth.
I had been following her posts as she was getting ready for Lucketts. What was being brought, what was in the works, how she prices pieces, where she would be. I've watched her videos. Used her paint. Read how she got her business started. And I was actually going to meet her.
In person.
In the flesh.
You're probably thinking that I'm being ridiculous, but it really is a big deal to meet someone that you've only read about and seen through a computer in real life. I plucked up the courage to go talk to her and strolled into the booth (which was adorable despite it being the last day).
"Are you Marian?" I asked.
A big smile met me.
"Why yes, I am! Thanks for coming to my booth."
We talked. I shared about my journey from decorating my 800 square foot apartment on a budget and my love for reviving discarded pieces of furniture. I told her about how she has inspired me. Her journey and her openness has allowed me to realize that I might actually be able to take this "furniture thing" and turn it into something. More so that than, it might actually be a calling. A God-thing.I met Kriste too! Kriste...from Kriste's Milk Paint Journal. The Kriste in the tutorials. The Kriste from Rosemary and Thyme. She was just as sweet as could be. She asked me about my story and how I got into what I do. She asked me about my vision and where I wanted to go. She shared some of her struggles and...again...it was a total God-thing.
I even got to see an episode of "Design Ramblings" being filmed (before the band drowned them out).
We exchanged contact information and Kriste asked me to send her the names of a few local shops around the area for them to check out. Then I took a bold step. I asked Kriste if we could pray together. And we did. We prayed about our futures and our next steps. We prayed that God would lead us as He sees fit. We thanked Him for allowing us to come together and meet one another. And then I felt a warm hand on my back and I opened my eyes to see Marian...Miss Mustard Seed herself praying with us!
Was this really happening?!
We hugged afterwards and someone from one of the other booths took a picture of it, which I thought was the sweetest thing. I was riding pretty high, needless to say, when I arrived home. And then I saw this:
I had no idea my friend was going to write me a note, but there it was in my mailbox. It's definitely a God-thing.
