Thank you so much for your prayers. We are finally back in Cedar Rapids after doing four Bright Lights conferences in the last two weeks. It is good to be back "home" :)
As always, I really enjoyed helping out at the conferences. Sharing my heart with the girls during small group, giving testimonies in the main sessions, playing the violin to accompany the singing, setting up the book table, enjoying good fellowship with the other leaders...I could go on and on!
It was also challenging at times. Through those times, I saw the Lord's faithfulness as I brought my requests to Him in prayer. Let me share with you two of such circumstances...
The day before the Nebraska Strong in the Lord conference started, I read this verse:
"Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long." - Proverbs 23:17
As I usually do, I copied the verse into my journal and also wrote some thoughts about it. Looking back I'm surprised that they even made sense since I usually write when I'm tired or in a hurry!
Excerpt from my journal:
The paradox of us being told to love the Lord but also to fear Him. How can we possibly do both? Because we love the Lord, we should fear doing things that we know will displease Him. If our fear of the Lord comes out of our love for Him, it will be a healthy fear that brings us closer and not farther from Him.
What was so neat was that during my Strong in the Lord small group, one of the girls in my group asked me that question: how can we fear the Lord and also love Him? A few days later in my Radiant Purity small group, another girl asked me that same question again in the course of our discussions!
Another circumstance through which I saw the Lord's faithfulness was during my Radiant Purity small group. Our discussions on the first night of the conference went really well and I expected the next day to be the same. However, the next day brought some unexpected challenges. My team doubled in size and one of the new girls had some special needs. As a result, my small group was distracted throughout our time together despite my best efforts. To make it worse, in the middle of our discussion, one of the girls said: "So, how many of you want to date....and how many of you want to court?" She then proceeded to get my whole group to vote based on a show of hands. I was discouraged to see that about half of the group raised their hands to indicate that they would choose to date. Well, as I ended my last small group with the girls on this note, I wondered if the girls had benefited from anything in my small group . It certainly didn't seem so to me! Later on, as I read through their response forms, I couldn't stop smiling as the majority of them said that they enjoyed the small groups the best and many indicated specific commitments in the area of purity that they were going to make!
Sometimes, even after we spend time in prayer and do our very best preparation, things will not turn out the way we planned. In such situations, we have to remember that God's definition of success is different from ours. His ways are higher than our ways! Through it all, HE IS FAITHFUL!
Morning by morning, I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God's hand in mine
Season by season I watch Him amazed,
In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways
All I have need of His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.
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