She Speaks Part 3

I've saved the best for last!

Renee Swope spoke at the last Saturday session called, "Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt". (Renee and I are pictured above)

She focused on the doubt filled, fear driven, Gideon. God, overlooking his fears and doubts, saw him as a mighty warrior and took him on a journey which required total faith and ended in victory for Gideon and God.

She taught that in the shadow of doubts we have fear, but in the shadow of the cross we find God's Truths.

After the teaching, she had everyone take out a piece of paper and write down any doubts or fears that they had. I wrote a few on the paper. Then I walked to the front of the room and laid the paper at the foot of the cross.

Approaching the cross, I knelt down and closed my eyes to pray, SUDDENLY---

I had a vision of my past life as a child in grade school. In the vision, we went outside for P.E. and the team captains had to choose whom they wanted on their teams. Not only did they overlook me, but not being very athletic, they fought over who had to take me on their team.

I just sat there weeping. I couldn't believe the pain. I had not thought about this event for many, many years. God knew I needed a healing.

To help me deal with my fears of submitting my articles for publication, God lovingly reminded me of my painful past. You see, I was rejected by man, but HANDPICKED BY GOD!!! Praise God for this weekend! God did not overlook me.

Armed with the confidence that He has called me into this ministry, I can rest assured that He will publish my work when and where He wants to.

What a freeing time for me! I opened my eyes and looked around, God is so amazing. He loves us so much that He is willing to show us where we are bound, and then He sets us FREE! I left that paper there, at the foot of the cross. I left and just praised God for releasing me from the pain and fear associated with my past.

As I left, I picked up a paper with a promise (they were pre-written and prayed over) it said, "Called", and the scripture was Isaiah 43:10 "You are my witness," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He."

If you have been called by God but there is something holding you back, pray and ask Him to show you why you are bound and pray that He will set you free.

She Speaks Part 2

Can you believe that we are still in Saturday's sessions! This was a convention that was packed FULL of information.

Session #4 on Saturday was called "How to Write a Book" by Lysa TerKeurst. This was very informative!! She is so much fun to watch! She used a pineapple and actually cut it up in the class to help us remember her pineapple Principle. She then gave us a lot of "P" points to remember which were great. For example, she said that we have to partner up with others, God has not intended us to go it alone. She had so much to say but ended it with Pursue Excellence. This is great advise and I will be reviewing these notes in the weeks to come!

Then it was off to Session #5 this was called "Book Proposals that Get Noticed" by LaRae Weikert. She works for Harvest House Publishers. She had so much helpful information to share with us that I am going to hold on to it until God gives me a book to write! Thankfully we have the notes to refer back to at any time!

Session #6 was called "The Ultimate Blogging Q & A" this was put on by our own top bloggers, boomama, bigmama, and rocksinmydryer. This session was practical info on things like, how do you change your blog name, etc.

On a readers note, I will be changing my blog name to "truth 4 the journey" very soon. I'll either learn how to redirect you all to my new URL or I'll have a post up telling you how to get to my new blog location..... But that isn't going to happen this week. I'm working on it!

Session #7 was called "Writers Coffee House" and it was great! My favorite part was when Suzie Eller (T. Suzanne Eller) talked to us. She is a published author and speaker and just a down to earth pleasant woman and mother and wife! Her love of God was contagious!

Ok, I've saved the best for last, be sure to check back tomorrow to hear about the vision that God gave me!

Saturday @ She Speaks Part 1

Saturday @ She Speaks was so full and exciting! It all started at 8:15am (this was after breakfast!) and it didn't end until 10pm that evening.

The first thing we did was to have a general session taught by Karen Ehman on Embracing your Little and your Lot. Here are a few of the important things that I learned at this session:

1) Comparison Kills Contentment. (I think I should post that truth on my bathroom mirror!)

2) The grass in NOT greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water, fertilize and pull the weeds! I loved this one! :)

3) Lastly it's God's job to grow your ministry and your job to learn how to obey God and be content where He has you.

The second session that I attented was called, "The Pathway to Publication", by Susanne Scheppmann. I was so glad that I attended this session. The main point to remember from this one is that I need to keep writing and keep submitting. There were also a lot of practical things I took away.

The third session was called "Magazine Writing 101, Honing your Writing Skills". That was a critical class for me with many practical tips and tools to help me become a better writer. I learned the difference between being an active writer and a passive writer. And lots of other important things. I will need to review my notes some more to really glean everything that I can from this session.

I hope this is giving you a picture of what this conference is like. If you are a writer I highly recomend She Speaks!! More to come later!

Friday at She Speaks

Lysa TerKeurst and Me!

Wow, Friday at She Speaks, where to begin!

I'll start with the first general session. It was given by Lysa TerKeurst and I was really blessed. I don't want to give it away if you ever hear her speak, so I'll just tell you what I came away with.

First of all, She gave a stellar description of her first writers conference, and how she had the wrong expectations. I think we could all relate. Then she said by the end that she felt like she was rejected by man, but handpicked by God. That is exactly how I felt this weekend, as a matter of fact, my whole adult life! So this was exactly what I needed to hear.

She then went on to point out that David, in the Bible, was also overlooked by man but handpicked by God. It was a sweet time and I will NOT forget those words as I receive the occasional rejection letter from a publisher or magazine! I will not give up and I will be sure to keep writing and submitting because God has called me to do this.

The next session I went to was called, "Blogging: What Works and What Doesn't." This was put on by 3 top bloggers, Boomama, Rocks in my dryer, and Bigmama. They were very cute and helpful and I will probably be redirecting you all to a new blog name at some point in the near future because of their advice. No worries for now, though. :)

The last session of the night was a writers critique group. This was invaluable because I brought an article and shared it with 2 other writers who read it and then gave me feedback. Praise God for the honesty and help of these 2 ladies, I now know I can make this article the way it needs to be. The other cool thing was that Glynnis Whitwer, who headed this up, decided to create online critique groups for the writers who were interested! So, more to come on this, but I am in a group now. :)

I'm Home!

Hello All!

I want to thank you for your prayers while I was away at the She Speaks Conference. It was a life changing experience!

(Kelly and Sonya.)

My good friend Kelly and I drove down to North Carolina late Thursday evening. The main issue we had was a warning sign in her car that indicated low tire pressure. We stopped at the very next exit, and were blessed by a full service station that was still open and working on vehicles at 7pm! They plugged the hole in the tire and we were off again. We arrived at the Embassy Suites hotel around 11pm. The room was lovely and we called it a night.

Friday was really great as we had breakfast with our special friend and encourager Bonita from Streams of Living Water. We talked and talked until almost noon. Then it was a quick lunch and down to the Bloggers reception.

Then the sessions started and we weren't up to our rooms until 10pm! Saturday was also packed from 8:15 until 10pm. You certainly don't sleep much at these events.

Sunday we were up and checked out by 9 and then the service started at 9:30 and ran until noon. After a quick lunch we were on our way home.

I didn't remember my camera so I am waiting for a few friends to e-mail me pictures then I'll post them.

I will blog about some more events over the next few days. Can you believe this is the first time I've gotten onto the Internet since last Thursday!!

Well, this is getting long and I've got a pile of laundry as tall as me to tackle! I'll talk to you all soon!

Sweet Nothings

I am very excited that in less than a week I am leaving to go to the She Speaks Conference in North Carolina. What a great opportunity this will be for me to learn and grow in the area of writing for God.

Back in April God lovingly called me to start this blog and begin writing for Him. He directed my path to go to She Speaks and beyond all of this I am not certain where this road will lead. Will He call me to write a book, a devotional, articles for magazines? These are all mysteries to me right now. But I believe that He will begin to clarify my calling when I attend the conference.

The fact that I'm even going to the conference is a miracle. When I looked into it they said it was full, so I put my name on the waiting list, and by sheer miracle I got in! There are 500 women attending and probably a large number on the waiting list. I love when God clears the path like this because you can follow Him with ease.

Up until about a week ago I have been confident in this new calling and I've been happy to write blog posts and potential articles for magazines. Until the enemy started whispering in my ear. He said things like, "why are you doing this?", "you are a nobody so who would want to publish your articles/book ideas?", "you can't afford to go to the conference, what if it's for nothing". I like to call these things sweet nothings, because that is exactly what they are, nothing but LIES!

I've seen on several other She Speaks attendees blogs that they, too have had these sweet nothings whispered into their ears. Thanks be to God for His Word. We are told to test everything against the Word of God. So, when I did this I found out that they were all lies. Let's take a look at what the Bible has to say:

Psalm 138:8(MKJVa) Jehovah will perfect His work in me; Your mercy, O Jehovah, endures forever;

Jeremiah 29:11(MSG) I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out--plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Deuteronomy 31:6(MSG) Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. Don't give them a second thought because GOD, your God, is striding ahead of you. He's right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you."

Now these aren't sweet nothings, these are the promises of God concerning you and me!

Please pray for me this week, and the other 499 ladies and staff of She Speaks. Pray that we will only listen to His promises and that we will have peace about the conference. Pray for our safety and the safety of our families as we travel. Prayer is so important, thank you for sowing into my life in this way.

This will be the last post from me until Monday (after the conference)as I have multiple details to take care of before I leave on Thursday. I know God is at work and I'm looking forward to coming home and blogging all about His goodness.

Feedback

I am having so much fun writing this blog. It is amazing how therapeutic writing can be. You are able to really sort through the emotions and lessons that God is trying to show you in your life. But it's also addictive, surfing the net to read other christian blogs and then there's the comments on my blog. This is all very time consuming.

Since I'm new at this my husband and I are still in the discovery stages of setting the proper boundaries for me on computing. I do feel a little like a blogger junkie! Because I desire to spend so much of my "spare" time checking to see if anyone has left me a comment, and to check to see if my bloggie friends have posted something new I can read and be blessed by. My husband told me that I've become a feedback junkie. When he said that we both laughed, but it struck a cord with me.

I took it to the Lord in prayer and He showed me that I have become addicted to seeing feedback on my blog. It feels good, it's uplifting and encouraging. The problem is that I need to make sure I'm not writing for the feedback, but out of obedience to God. I need to learn to be content with the fact that I'm doing what God has called me to do and I've done it to the best of my ability.

I am glad that God has again lovingly shown me an area that needs improvement in my life. And I want to warn you fellow bloggers not to become a feedback junkie! I was able to release this and what a freeing feeling. I no longer feel compelled to "check on my blog" but within my boundaries I can blog and be encouraged by feedback, as long as I'm no relying on it to confirm that I am following God's lead.

This can be taken to other areas of our lives, as well. Why are you serving in your church, in your community? If you've become a feedback junkie in the area of service, give it to God and stay focused on being a servant and nothing more.