What I love about the Thursday Women meetings is that they are meetings with God as well as each other. I also love the creative way he communicates with us. It was another interesting morning on Thursday.

As usual, it's the stories people relate that get things started. One woman told us how she was feeling bad about being controlling with her nine-year-old son. Because she herself had enjoyed football at school, she said she'd pushed him into playing - until she saw him in action and concluded it really wasn't his gift! Since then she found herself being equally pushy in trying to discourage him from playing, but he was determined to try out for the school team. 'I really want to get in and I've prayed,' he said, adding, 'We'll see if there's a God!'

There was nothing she could do but wait and see, and to her astonishment, he was chosen over more gifted players to have a place on the team ('There is a God!' we agreed). She felt she'd learnt a lesson about handing over the control of her family and life to God, where it belonged.

Then as we worshipped, one woman prayed aloud in tears a prayer of repentance for trying to take control of things in her life that were not hers to control, leaving her frustrated and angry. It was a powerful prayer. Someone else prayed aloud along similar lines. This second person was a lady I found myself talking to at the end of the morning; she had suddenly realised that she was not entrusting the control of anything in her life to God; her perception of him was that he was too small to be trusted. She was clearly gobsmacked at this realisation and just wanted to get right with God. Someone in our little prayer group had a picture of a sceptre being handed back to the King, so we rolled up a piece of paper for her to hold, which she then symbolically placed on an empty chair (the 'throne') in front of her. The effect was dramatic - there were a lot of tears and sorries and afterwards she was clearly more at peace.

It's reminded me that I need to keep checking - am I holding onto the sceptre that belongs to the King? And can I trust him enough to hand it back?