The Bess Family 2011

David deep in thought...

This may have been my favorite from the day.

Sweet new family..

The "no longer newly-weds" :)

The WHOLE crew...

Dream Big - day 2

If I had to describe today in one would, it would have to be - emotional. When the event planners got together to plan "Tuesday" I am pretty sure they said, "hey, lets make these people just cry all day." Well, if that was the case, they were successful.

The morning started out with my workshop choice, Donna Peavey. Her voice was as sweet as a pecan pie and her accent as thick as honey. Aside from being truly hilarious (she reminded me of my momma) she talked about how to "destress" your ministry. She gave lots and lots of info that should that true stress can cause your body true harm. I decided during this session that I am no where near stressed. I mean I took a quiz. How could that be wrong. :) Here are a few things that I took from her session:

"One second into eternity, is this going to matter?"

"Any situation that you encounter has already been sifted through the hand of God."

The next session I attended was by Brian Haynes. It was entitled "Shift your children's ministry to connect church and home." I really enjoyed this one as well. He discussed different milestones that children face as they grow up. Here are a few things that Brian spoke on:

"We have created a generation where their faith doesn't bleed into every part of their lives. Its "compartmentalized."

Parents often feel super defeated when they are told or reminded that THEY are the main spiritual discipline and teacher in their child's live. I like to think this takes a little bit of pressure off my position of work, but instead, I now have the responsibility of making sure that my parents are prepared to take on this challenge. (Parents get ready. We are about to start working together to better prepare your children for the relationship with Christ they were designed to have.)

Different milestones of live:

1 - Parent/Baby dedication

2 - Salvation and Baptism

3 - Preparing for Adolescence

4 - Purity for Life

Next we went into the general assembly where we heard the amazing story of Michael Kelly. He spoke on John 11 all the while sharing his story of how his young son was diagnosed, at the age of 2, with leukemia. Through his heart tearing story, his main goal was to let us know how to handle situations, like his, with grace - as well as honesty. Kelly reminded us that even though it is in our nature to cast off cliche saying such as "God just wanted your son in heaven" "This is for the best" "Your child is in a much better place".. and so on and so forth. Now all of those things are extremely true, but what parents really need is for someone to be real with them. Sometimes they need a shoulder. A silent shoulder. Maybe a prayerful shoulder. None the less, a shoulder that, eventually, can remind that parent that no matter what happened, God received glory for that circumstance.

The rest of the afternoon was fulled with stories just like this. Ways that God worked in the lives of people. True, honest, sinful, convicted, people. Here are the blogs of some of the people that spoke. Enjoy..

http://angiesmithonline.com/

http://tinahouser.net/

http://legacyblog.org/

Oh... and we ended the night with this. Thank you Gigi's Cupcakes...

Dream Big.

This week I have been blessed with the opportunity to attend the 2011 Kids Ministry Conference in Nashville Tn. I use the word blessed because I truly can not even explain how I KNOW God is going to use this week in my life. Since this is my blog, and I get to be totally honest, I'm going to do just that. For the past few weeks I feel like I have been stressed to the max. And I feel like the word stressed is now so cliche. We say it all the time, use it as a cop out, and blame our problems on the fact that we are "stressed." So maybe I shouldn't use the word stressed. Maybe, instead, I should say that I feel like I have placed other things in front of my relationship with Christ. Therefor, my relationship with Him has struggled and as you may know as well, nothing in life can function correctly when our relationship with Him is off. So, you get my drift! Needless to say, this week came at the PERFECT time. I mean literally yesterday, after my children's worship time I left wanting to just cry. I can not visibly see what God is doing in my ministry and it so discouraging. I feel like I am doing my job for nothing. Let me just say - that was Satan. Jerk.

I am up here with my dear, sweet, amazing, friend and mentor - Linda Baxter. Mrs. Linda was my children's minister and now I get the opportunity to watch what she does and learn from her. I road up to her house on Sunday afternoon and then we drove the rest of the way here on Monday morning (We left at 6:00 am).

When we got here I was not really sure what to expect. The only thing that I knew about the week was that the Duggars were going to be here. I was immediately concerned with seating.... Let that sink in. :) haha

Since 1:00 pm I have heard speakers from all over the country. All have different backgrounds. All look drastically DIFFERENT. But their common denominator was this: their passion for children and their passion for Christ. Some of those speakers included Ed Stetzer, Jon Acuff, Tim Elmore, and Shane Garrison (just to name a few). We talked about everything from change to theology to modern day children and how they are maturing... or not.

The day was amazingly tiring, spirit filled, encouraging, enlightening, and convicting. God is good. But I am already anticipating the crazy scared feeling that is going to come when He shows me my next puzzle piece.

Seeing His hand. Trusting his hand.

Have you ever longed to have a one on one, face to face, fill in all the blanks, conversation with Christ. I mean truly, sit down and just talk. I have. All the time. Especially lately. I just want so badly for Him to tell me what it is He wants me to do. He continues to fill in little blimps here and there - and truly that all I should ask for. My life is nothing like I imagined it would be a year ago. I went from dating a guy, who I thought I would marry, to being as single as can be. I traded in my dreams of wedding planning for crayons and boogers (which I love every second of, dont get me wrong!) Even my tooth paste has changed, and for what? I think God had to take me so far away from everything that I had ever wanted so that He could show me what it is He wants me to do. And now, in the midst of surrender, He throws me yet another challenge. Foreign mission. I have never been this girl. I have never though of myself as the person you read about in your missions organizations at church. There are people right here in Albany that need Christ, right? Who is going to stay here and witness to these people? Although my questions are valid and very realistic, they arent the questions that I should be asking myself. Instead, God has me cleaning my slate of all selfish desires right now. Instead, I find myself praying, "Father, where, when, how long?" And the crazy part is, I DONT HAVE TO HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS. I know, right? crazy for me to think. I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine about 3 weeks ago and it was if the Holy Spirit just spoke through her. It was the most awesome and strange thing I had ever encountered. We were talking about my future, what I wanted, what I thought God had for me to do and out of no where she just said, "Lauren, you arent going to be tied to Albany. You are single right now because God is going to take to places that you wouldnt go if you were dating someone that wasnt willing to go with you. You are going to find someone that shares your passion for children, music, and mission and the two of you will be a strengthened body - working to spread the story of Christ." As you can probably imagine, I was blown away. It was as if God and I were having this conversation, not me and this other person. He CLEARLY spoke through her. Since that conversation I have spent a lot of time just searching and being open to where He wants to take me. I feel like these heavy, muggy blinders have been taken off my eyes. I can see now that God wants me to fully put it ALL in His hands. He has not given me a passion for the Hispanic people so that I can sit at my house and wish I could use it!! NO. He didnt give me a passion for marriage and children so that I could envy all those who bask in it daily. NO! He has a plan for me too. And it is so evident. I just don't have all the details yet. And you know what... that is okay! :)

bright lights... big city

This past weekend, my best friend and I ventured North for a fab weekend in the big Atl!! We really did have a blast getting to see my other close friend, Stephanie Roberts and her husband!! The weekend consisted of: lunch with a girl we graduated with, photo session in Atlantic Station, dinner and a movie, lunch at JCT - and of course another photo session, Hawks game, shopping, and lastly, looking for a place to park (which was sort of an every day thing!!!)

Here are a few shots from the weekend...

Anna and Nathan...

Anna and I have been best friends since the sixth grade! Now that she is dating Nathan, I have to share my time with her, but he understands that I am part of the "Anna Burns Package."

Anna, you look like a fab model!

And Stephanie and Randy...

Stephanie and I have been friends for... well forever! We grew up together and now that she lives in Marietta I do not get to see her as often as I would like, but I take every chance I get!

For those of you that have been hiding under a rock for the past 23 years, the camera loves Stephanie, and Stephanie loves the camera! Personal favorite from the day...
This weekend was a blast! Thank you my friends that bore the cold as I made you pose.

Happy Tuesday...

this philosophy of mine...

When the word “teacher” comes to mind several other words immediately follow: passion, determination, patience, success, motivation, and caring - just to name a few. I think that all of these words cohesively travel hand in hand! In order to express my philosophy of teaching I must use all previously stated words to describe my personal beliefs. My philosophy is, “I believe that teaching is a God given passion that motivates us to patiently care for our students. In turn, our students will then be determined to succeed throughout their education which leads them to impact the future in a positive manner.”
When I was younger I always tried to imagine what my life would be like when I “grew up.” The funny thing is, I never once looked into the future and saw myself teaching. My true dream was to become a wedding planner and major in communications, but those plans all changed one day while I was in Vancouver, Canada. I felt like God was telling me that He had other plans for my life, so I decided that I would listen and follow what He told me. Since that day I have constantly searched and deciphered exactly what it takes to be a successful teacher. The truth is there is no book, essay, or person that can answer that question. There is not a master check list that one must follow in order to successfully impact the lives of children! However, as an aspiring teacher, it is vital to my success that I pay attention to the teachers that have come before me and observe exactly what it is that they have and the techniques they use to on a day to day basis.
Teaching is so much more than simply “showing up for work and corralling children.” It is about striking a revolution within a child. Seeing that child grow from interested to enthralled, all the while making sure that the child knows he is loved, cared about, and important. This sort of task takes devotion and passion; two words I just can’t get enough of. When we walk into our classrooms passionately devoted to our students and to their future, statistics are changed as well as lives.
Although I still have two more years until I finish my bachelor’s degree, I am already ecstatic about starting my career. And I believe that that sort of passion is what one needs to look for if they are considering going into the education field! It’s a passion that knows no end and will not be quenched until its recipient is changed for life.