Shepherd

A week ago I was sitting, bundled up in the woods listening to some great teaching by the pastors at my church. I went to a small group leaders "retreat"...a night away, basically 24 hours where we were loved on with great food and drink, with time to rest, with time to learn, with time to fellowship. It was a great 24 hours.

The topic of the teaching was shepherding...specifically the Lord as our shepherd and how he calls us into shepherding others with the heart, mind, and skills of a shepherd. There was a lot of great teaching and encouragement and challenges in the words brought, but a few I wanted to share:
Basically my inability in all of this is incredibly apparent...the fact that I must receive from the Lord and remember that I am loved in order to love. They talked about John 13 and Peter's unwillingness for the Lord to wash his feet. Jesus replied (v. 8) "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." Do I believe the Lord loves me? Do I believe that the Lord has me leading because he loves me and wants to reveal himself to me as much as to those I am leading? Another thing they talked on was the importance of being immersed in his love personally. What does that look like in my life? Obviously a lot of these have to do with the heart of the shepherd and where I feel like I am gifted more, so I need to spend more time praying and thinking on the mind and skills of a shepherd as well.
We also each spent time on our own in Psalm 23 and some of the biggest points for me were
The Lord is MY shepherd.
He restores my soul.
I shall not be in want
I fear no evil
My cup overflows
I could write a lot about this but much of it I am still processing and still learning from...these were some of my initial thoughts.