TRAVEL THERE AND BRING IT HOME
So, I was away from home for five days and attended a Christian Women’s Conference for three of them. Sure, I discovered an amazing restaurant in Little Rock, saw a presidential library and ate the best BBQ in St. Louis (maybe the world?). But did I bring anything home with me from the conference which would change my life.
Hope
The best thing I brought home with me was hope. I confess my summer had been rough and it had shredded my hope. Just getting out of the house and away from the business was a blessing, but it was more than that.
Everybody makes mistakes. I know that, but in the day to day of it, I sometimes feel like the stupidest person alive. How exactly did I get here? Why do I keep making the same mistakes over and over? Where is my joy?
The first night of the conference Joyce faced this issue. She confessed her own mistakes in life, but also pointed out there are hidden treasures in what we may consider our mistakes.
If someone like Joyce Meyer can own up to her mistakes, then I’m encouraged to own up to mine. The next morning Lisa Harper and Christine Cline chipped in and confessed their own ability to screw up royally. Now I was feeling even better. I was reminded all us humans can make mistakes. I could leave that burden and guilt right there on the floor of America’s Dome.
Then Lisa Harper talked about the God of second chances and third chances and fourth chances – in fact, as many chances as I need until heaven comes. God’s not even counting. He created a clean slate for all of us on the day His Son died on that cross. All I have to do is get over myself and accept it. I knew that, but Satan does everything he can to keep that fact from being in the forefront of my mind. There was another burden to leave behind me.
Just in case I had not gotten the message, Christine Caine got up there on Saturday morning and told me the pandemic was over. How many times have a blamed something on the pandemic or wished for the good old days? If I don’t keep my face and my heart directed toward what God has ahead of me, I am in danger of being as useless as the pillar of salt Lot’s wife turned into. So, I left my pandemic mindset in the trashcan and headed home.
The Imagination Station also gave me hope. At the ripe old age of 67 you begin to feel as if the best things in life are behind you. I dared to write dreams on a piece of cloth and tie it to the grid on the wall. It felt kind of silly and I almost didn’t do it, but I figured I had little to lose and everything to gain. I was barely home when God gave me a taste of what He could do when I let go of wishing and turned my hopes into prayers. Lesson learned – my best days ARE still ahead; it’s not too late.
Merchandise
The most important thing I bought at the Joyce Meyers’ Love Life Conference 2022 was tickets for Love Life Conference 2023. It’s going to be in San Antonio – one of my very favorite places in the world – October 19-21 in the Alamo Dome. I bought two tickets, because this is my bestie’s birthday month and I couldn’t imagine a better present. If you’d like to come too, here’s the link: https://brushfire.com/joycemeyer/wc2023/537511.
I also bought some books. I’d never read Battlefield of the Mind, which is her classic work, so I picked it up. It is so good I think I may read it annually or perhaps quarterly. It’s not anything I didn’t already know, but everything I need to be reminded of on a daily basis. If you are looking for something good to read, start there!
Great Memories!
God has blessed me in many ways, but one of his best gifts is my best friend, the sister of my heart, Deborah Shera. We tell folks we could go to a mud puddle and have fun. The hotels we stayed in during this trip probably prove that point. Instead of being aghast and bawling me out for choosing such awful hotels, we laughed. But it wasn’t all bad hotels by any stretch. We shared great food, cherished some of our best memories, created some new ones and came home with our hearts stitched together a little tighter – if that is at all possible.
So today is Wednesday, October 3, 2022 as I write this post for Wednesday, September 7, 2023. As of today, the only travel plans I have are for Joyce’s conference in San Antonio which I just mentioned.
Will the travel gods grant me another trip before that? I have no idea, but I hope you will come back next week and find out!! I promise there will be something there to entertain you!
jane sadek 