Women of Faith Conference

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Women of Faith Conference. Now this slumber party of over 6,000 women was filled with great music, plenty of laughs, a few tears and many thought provoking ideas.

Here are just some of the nuggets I received and am chewing over:

• Wisdom is skill in living
• It’s good to feel inadequate when faced with a new challenge. You’ll grow into it. Ask God for wisdom and lean on Him.
• Always speak softly, especially when faced with an angry person. If you don’t respond it takes away their power.
• Be purposeful in what you put in your head. Something is going in there, you are in control of what.
• Put boundaries on your emotions or they will run away with you and emotions can not be trusted.
• Give everyone grace space – space to be human and make mistakes, we all make them.
• Refuse to entertain unkind, negative thoughts and a runaway imaginations.
  Replace them with good and perfect thoughts – it will make a difference.
• Forgiveness is a decision not an emotion.
• Forgiveness is about us; trust is about them.
• Forgiveness is about the past; trust is about the future.
• Recovery is a process.
• God is enough for us and we are enough for Him just the way we are.
• We all have an ill-defined itch in our soul for more – God can satisfy it like nothing else can.

Finally probably one of the most powerful thought provoking session for me was with Andy Andrews when he spoke on the butterfly effect. Check it out it just may change your life.

Andy Andrews and The Butterfly Effect

Weekend in review

Normally my blog is a bunch of words thrown together to hopefully make you think and reflect a little about your life and where you are going. Today its a little different, its a bunch of words I’ve thrown together to share the my weekend.

This past Labor Day weekend was just amazing. Both Paul & I had been given the weekend off from our duties at church on Sunday, which meant that we could spend the weekend together as a family. Now I did work a few hours on Saturday afternoon/evening, but otherwise we were lucky enough to spend it all together.

Now what did we do that was so special, in a nutshell nothing. We were able to sleep in till we woke up, cuddle together with the kids in bed, go to church together in the same car (something we never do) and generally just hang out together.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love our life and I love the fact that we have it full of commitments to church and friends, but sometimes taking a weekend to nothing for anyone else but yourself is great.

Yesterday we went to breakfast together and then went to the Hartville Fleamarkt. The weather was warm with a cool breeze, just prefect for wandering around. We spent hours walking and looking at stuff. Came home with fresh corn, watermelon, apples, red peppers and a few treasures for the kids.

We re-discovered each other and the joy of being the Bukowski Family – thank you Jesus for the gift of family and for an amazing, if not simple, weekend.

Time to move

Woke up this morning and honestly I’m just not feeling it. I’m tired physically, mentally & emotionally. As the mother of a very independent, head-strong 3 yrs old my hands are very full. Recently however he has begun to push his boundaries and my patience to the absolute limit.

He has brought me to tears and to my knees several times and yet life must go on. I must continue. I have a daughter who needs to do schooled, a husband to love, a house that needs cleaning, a ministry I’ve neglected, but how do I carry on?

Being on my knees, praying for help and leaning on Him is the easiest thing in the world for me, but even with doing that I must do something for myself. I must make that decision to accept what I have, enjoy my  life and make the most of it. The choice is mine as to how I react to the situation. I could sit and wallow in despair and depression or I can choose to ‘fake it till I make it’.

God promises to be there and I know that He is, but He doesn’t want me to just sit on my backside doing nothing. He wants me to put my brain in the right gear. He wants me to focus on Him, on my blessings and not one the difficulties and problems. I need to do my best with what I have and that means struggling through the darkness. It means following His light. Its means doing something.

I’m dumb founded at the simplicity and complexity of the answer. One thought at a time can and will change the entire outlook of a day, of a week, of life in general. Today I’m choosing to be in control of my thoughts. Today I’m choosing to do the hard work and get up and moving out of the mud.

I don’t know how long it will take before I’m out of the darkness, but I know I’m not alone. I can feel His arm around me guiding me as I move. When I stop He stops and when I move forward so does He with a smile on His face.