Here's me and my travel buddy, Dawn:
(Please forgive my crazy eyes...cute tote bags have a strange effect on me, apparently. :)
It was also the quintessential spring afternoon, so we walked around Covington and enjoyed the city's architecture and the beautiful view of downtown Cincinnati across the river:
Also, another highlight, seeing the ridiculously talented Jenny Oaks Baker perform for the third year in a row:
I also started one of my new books when I had down time:
And ran into this lady, one of the neatest ladies ever and one of my leaders and saving angels during my growing-up years:
God is tender.
The REAL highlight, of course, is the inspiration that comes through all these talks. I always come away with that "one talk that was written just for me," bit this year I felt like they ALL were.
The theme was "inevitable light," which warrants some pondering when you have a moment. But it centered around the scripture of 1 Timothy 4:14-15:
"Neglect not the gift that is in thee...Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them."
What are YOUR gifts? How can you use them to build up God's Kingdom, to share the light that His love and goodness will inevitably bring? What is your dream? What is your mission? What are the greatest desires of your heart? And what's holding you back? These are the questions we tried to answer. Or tried to START to answer. :)
Many of the things that would be most meaningful to share are also personal enough I don't think I will here and now. And I'm too lazy, frankly, to summarize or copy ALL my notes like I did last year. :) But I invite you to ponder those same questions above and seek answers. Also, be brave enough to accept those answers and act on them. Miracles happen when we do this.
And, because I want to keep these somewhere for you, here are just SOME of the quotes and thoughts that resonated with me this weekend:
Speaking of the parable of the ten virgins and the necessity to seek out oil for ourselves, and then of visiting her oldest son's grave, Heidi S. Swinson said of her grief, "Out of my heart, into my lamp was poured out light, that I could see further." I get this. So much. And it is so much more beautifully put than anything I've come up with in the last 8 months to describe that experience.
From Jenny Oaks Baker, speaking of the desire to use her talents to save the world:
"If you can't do visiting teaching, why would The Lord trust you with the whole world?"
From Elaine Dalton:
"You are not an ordinary woman...none of us has the same divine mission, but all of our parts matter because all of US matter." Also, when you doubt yourself, remember: "We fought a war, and we won! We won!" We were "prepared and reserved" for a divinely personal mission in this life, but Satan distracts, delays, and disqualifies us." We must not let him!
From Whitney Johnson:
"Date your dreams." "Start with what makes you feel strong." "Dreaming is about showing up."
From Chris Williams:
"Let it go." :) The Spirit speaks to things as they really are and as they really will be; that truth is necessary to cultivate and find especially in the midst of trials.
(His talk was a very moving one for me this time around.)
Laurel C. Day (my favorite!):
"God gives us the desires of our heart. Not that He grants us the things our heart desires, but that He can give us the desires to put in our hearts." Align your desires to His, and "make it enough."
From Wendy Ulrich:
"Turn futile hopes into fertile hopes." Stop wasting time and spiritual/emotional energy on false hopes (including undoing the past ["Forgiveness means giving up all hope of ever having a better past"], preventing trouble in the future ["of all of the many names of God, He is never called the Preventer!"], certainty in an uncertain world [for if we had a sure knowledge, what need would we have of faith?], and control (agency matters!).
From Emily Watts:
"Remember WHY you're doing what you're doing." "Work toward making 'yes' your default response." "Even in a world of darkness, God's covenant children have light. It is, in fact, inevitable."
I felt so inspired to make changes in my life, to dare to dream a little higher, to live up to the privilege of being a daughter of God, and to stay close to Paul by remembering and emulating him. The music itself was incredibly moving, too. I relearned from Hilary Weeks to "let my dreams be bigger than my fears" and that it's also okay to cry and that in the often-quoted scripture about "mourning with those that mourn and comforting those that stand in need of comfort," mourning is important and it comes first.
It was a very edifying weekend, and I wish it weren't over!
