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.