The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Psalm 23:1-6

Sometimes life feels overwhelming and I’m going to say it, it’s hard to look to God. You might feel unworthy of His love. You might feel like you can’t even find Him through the chaos of your life. Particularly right now, when school is out and all five of my children are home, I hear screaming and arguing and it’s tough to feel like I can talk to God. When I’m filled with regret for mistakes I’ve made or sins I’ve committed, I find it so hard to fall into His arms because I feel so undeserving. That’s NOT how it’s supposed to be. He died for our SIN, for our past, present, and future. Those mistakes you are ailing over, He already knew about them before you even existed. Now you need Him to get through them for yourself.

God can hear you through the mess that is your life but if you’re struggling to focus on Him, I think that a retreat is necessary. It’s been a little over a year since I last went to a retreat and I felt that I learned a lot but most importantly, I was able to cut through the chaos and get myself focused back on God. That’s what I need now.

Enter the Kingdom Bound Festival. It’s similar to a Christian retreat in that it is Christ-centered and there are speakers to help bring you the Word of God. The Kingdom Bound Festival presents the Gospel in a variety of different art forms, though. There is a lineup of incredibly popular Christian artists crossing the stage to bring you so many of the worship songs you listen to at home. These impressive artists include:

• Skillet
• Danny Gokey
• We Are Messengers
• Unspoken
• for King & Country
• Mark Lee of Third Day
• Crowder
• Passion Music
• Brooke Nicholls
• Bethel Music
• I Am They
• Rebecca St. James
• Paul Baloche
• Verses
• AC & Brady
• North Point InsideOut
• Elias Dummer of The City Harmonic
• Caitie Hurst
• Social Club Misfits
• Selah/The Corner
• Th3 Saga
• Land of Color
• Remedy Drive
• Zauntee
• Ledger
• The Young Escape
• Robin Mark
• Brothers McClurg
• and of course, the KB Worship Team!

The Kingdom Bound Festival is held at Darien Lake, which has a campground and amusement park. My husband and I will be camping out in a tent, which includes admission to the festival and Six Flags. We NEED time to just focus on God and us without the kids but if you want to make it a family affair, Kingdom Bound actually offers a lot of kid-oriented things like art workshops, youth groups, and a kids tent of activities if you’d like to drop the kids off and go to worship or listen to a speaker.

What I’m envisioning is my husband and I going back to basics, making a quiet dinner at our tent just spending time together alone. We’ll hold hands while we worship with some of our favorite bands. Even riding roller coasters together will remind us that God has a plan for us, as crazy as that may sound. I’ve said it so many times before but I feel like time alone with your spouse is absolutely and unequivocally necessary. This trip, this Christ-centered adventure is essential to our marriage right now and we’re both so excited.

I’ll be posting plenty more about our Kingdom Bound Festival adventure so do follow along with my posts here and on Instagram!

The Kingdom Bound Festival is in Darien Lake, New York from Sunday, July 28th through Wednesday, July 31st. For more information, visit kingdombound.org.

 

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*The Quirky Mom Next Door received tickets in exchange for coverage of this event. All opinions and experiences are our own only.