Wednesday, March 15, 2017

INSPIRE Conference 2017

This past weekend, I did something I haven't done in a long time: I went to a women's conference.

Back in the day, different things would come up...Beth Moore, Kay Arthur, etc...and a group from our church, wherever we were living at the time, would go. We'd get the church van, or we'd all pile into cars and caravan.

I was always excited if I got to go, because, I'm just sayin'...having 4 kids in school...one with special needs, who had therapies and homework and stuff after school...and three others who had sports or other activities after-school...my times away were rare.

Fast forward to now. Joshua is the only one at "home" with us, since Clark is in college, and the other two are married.

And, guess what? It's still hard to get away.

But I pulled up the conference sign-up on-line, and filled it out...and then I took a big breath and pushed "finish."

There. I was registered.

Early Saturday morning, I left Jim and Joshua at home, and I met a group of women in our church parking lot. We all got into one car and headed out. There were 6 of us. One girl I knew pretty well. Two others were people I kind of recognized and said, "hi" to at church...and two others I had never seen before in my whole life.

The conference was really good. I loved looking around the room at all the women...all different ages and backgrounds. I was only a tad bit jealous of the groups of friends who came together...and just for a second. Because my next thought was how our lives are really all woven together. Moms, daughters, sisters, co-workers, Aunts, Grandmothers, friends...WOMEN.

This is how it will be in Heaven. Women and men...believers all together...hands raised in praise to Jesus.

I can't wait!

Our main speaker was Rachel Lovingood, and I highly recommend going to hear her if you get a chance. She was engaging, and super funny, but also serious. I totally could relate to her in many ways, but mainly because she's a mom, like me. She talked to us about worship, and being authentic, and how we all need each other.

It was a great day. I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a MINUTE. I met some new friends. AND, I got to take some people off of my "pretend internet friends" list...and put them on my "I met them in real life" list. :)

I'm convinced that God does not want us to live our lives alone. The hurt and the hard things that come to us in life are way too heavy to bear on our own. And the joys we will experience need to be shared with others.

Who are your people? Find some to join you...or be someone else's.

We need each other, y'all.

"Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters..." Hebrews 13: 1

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