The “ballots” have been cast and the votes have been tallied. The winners were announced on my birthday. Sadly, this time the winners circle for the She Speaks Scholarship Contest does not include a seat with my name on it. Say it with me now: “Awwwww…” LOL! If you’d like to see who did make it into the winners circle, click here.
Just to bring everyone up to speed, a few weeks ago I posted an update to this blog regarding the She Speaks Conference for Speakers, Writers and Women’s Ministry Leaders, sponsored by Proverbs 31 Ministries. The post was an entry to a scholarship contest, vying for a chance to win a full ride (minus the actual ride – transportation to get there) to the conference. If you’re interested in reading that post, just click here.
For the past 6 or 7 years, I’ve been trying to make my way to North Carolina to attend this annual conference. However, either I haven’t been trying hard enough or God seems to have a different opinion on my “need” to attend.
Am I disappointed? Wellllll…..to be honest I am not. Sure, on the day the winners were announced, I tore open my email hoping to see my name on the list. However, this obviously was not God’s will for me. The word of God promises that He will not withhold anything good from us (Psalm 84:11). So why does attending this great event continue to seemingly elude me?
SEE CONFESSION BELOW
Confession: Ok,so I can sometimes act as if I’m a little obsessed with training. I have a history of believing I must be trained by some expert, mentor, conference, class, school, online course, OR SOMETHING in order to effectively do what I KNOW God has assigned me to do. Now don’t get me wrong. All of these people/things are PHENOMENAL! (If they weren’t, I wouldn’t always be trying to find one, register for one, get to one, etc. LOL!) But the lesson I’ve learned is that if God said for you to do it, just do it! Step out. Put one foot in front of the other, and just start walking.
The Full Circle Women’s Fellowship Facebook page was “up” for MONTHS before the women there (or here, depending on where you’re reading this) were EVER invited to join. Seriously…. Each and every day, without fail, I’d go to the page and just look at it, dreaming of the day when women would fill the circle and fellowship would begin to take place. I kept waiting for training, waiting for someone to tell me what to do or how to do it, even waiting for someone to tell me it was the right way to go or a great place to start. Well guess what my friends, it never happened. In the meantime, as I was waiting, I was ignoring a very special friend of mine.
You see, as a believer in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I have a very special mentor. He is ALWAYS with me. His calendar is never full, so He ALWAYS has time for me. His conferences are one on one, and the fee?? Forget about it!! They’re paid in full each and every time. All I have to do is call Him. I’ll admit, sometimes I get His direction a bit twisted. Sometimes I don’t follow directions at all!! Shhhh….LOL! Yet, He remains so patient. He’s faithful to guide me to the right path, as a good mentor would, by any means necessary it often seems! And He’s pretty darn smart, too! LOL… Oh He’s just so beautiful to me!
I absolutely adore the Holy Spirit!
I didn’t win this time, but I’m going to keep it moving. So that means I won’t get to go to the conference YET AGAIN, but I’m sure I’ll be ok. Sure I’d LOVE to meet Lysa TerKeurst (Her blog posts are just CRAZY funny! I love her writing style!). I’d love to be mentored by someone like her, but maybe now isn’t the time. Sometimes, when you’re like me, I believe the Lord will withhold the very thing you think you need so you will realize you already have everything you need with the Spirit of the Lord within you.
So, I’m going to keep telling myself the same thing I just sent in a text message to a dear friend of mine who’s, also, trying to walk out God’s assignment for her life. “You can do it girl. Left, right, left – one foot in front of the other.” 🙂 For now it’s just me and the Holy Spirit. If I stay in line, I think we’ll probably manage pretty o.k.
P.S. One Monday morning while glaring at an unpublished Facebook page, it was my Friend, the Holy Spirit, who encouraged me to “just click publish”! Isn’t that cool! One foot in front of the other…
To learn more about Him check out John 14 and 1 Corinthians 2