this was my second year to attend WOF and i must say i love it everytime. there's just something about being surrounded by thousands of other women worshipping, laughing, crying, and growing together. God's presence was so real and apparent throughout the entire weekend. i enjoyed all the speakers, but of course had my favorites. i'm going to try my best to share with you what God taught me, is trying to teach me, and little nuggets that stuck out to me. i know i'm not even going to be able to capture the beauty of it all...but it will at least give you a glimpse.
friday night was the best in my opinion. the first speaker steve, who founded WOF and made all of this possible for the past 13 years spoke. he shared so much of himself and his heart and it was moving. he shared about learning to grieve your losses (he wrote a book about this, which i hope to read someday...it sounds fabulous). he shared of when he was in college, he got a girl pregnant and forced her into thinking she had no other option besides having an abortion. he didn't realize what he was doing and later in life felt as though he was being punished when he could not have children with his wife. he struggled for a long time and realized that he was not embracing the realities of his losses. he was running from it because obviously it was ugly and sinful. he didn't want to deal with it.
in order to heal we have to grieve and in order to grieve we have to face the reality of our situation and embrace it. by embracing our lives we are embracing God. we have to embrace the good, the bad, and the ugly and only when we do that can we experience his grace and healing. once steve grieved his losses of that unborn child, he was able to experience healing and just a few years ago had a little baby boy (steve is in his 50's). the bible says in luke 9:23b (the message) "Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how."
have i grieved the losses of frienships whom i'm no longer close to? the death of my grandfather? past relationships? what's keeping me from experiencing God's grace and healing?
what reality do you need to embrace so that you can experience healing?
3 comments:
how incredible... i can't believe i missed such a wonderful weekend! it sounds like God really spoke to your heart and I know He will continue to. keep the stories coming!!! love ya lots..m.e.
wow! you're so much better with words than i am! i loved reading this! now i can look at it whenever i want to remember what stephen said! :)
wow, i can't wait to read part 2 and i can't wait to go!!! i know that past negative experiences that i struggle to let go hold me back from truly experiencing God, but each and every day I work at it!!! :) Love you!
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