Last week at this time, I was traveling home from the Pursuit Conference. Wow! how has it come and gone so fast?! I can hardly wait until next year. The few days I spent at this conference were life changing.
A year ago when I saw pursuit 2014 pictures and talk about this conference I knew this was something I would Love and dream to attend. This year was my 1st year to attend this conference. I would recommend it to anyone! The relationships I built in just a few days will be friendships I will have for forever. We heard from SO many amazing speakers! They each were amazing and something I could take away from. It is safe to say everyone who attended was challenged, encouraged and learned something impactful. There were many tears and lots of laughs. I love each girl I met and so excited to plan trips to all get together again! If you are looking to be a part of a group that is encouraging and uplifting and challenging check out a pursuit group near you. Our group meets once a month. I am so excited to continue to deepen relationships and take what I learn and start putting it to practice. If you are wanting more information on pursuit, send me an email and we can get you in contact with the Ohio pursuit group leader, Ashley Kester.
I do want to share with you 3 main things I learned while attending this conference. I hope there is something you can learn from them as well.
1. “Be available to allow opportunity” We heard one evening from Esther Havens, she is an incredible humanitarian photographer who travels the would telling peoples stories. She has such an incredible heart for the Lord. It flowed out of her in every way. She challenged us to be available for what God may have! This hit home with me. Sometimes, (a lot of times) I know I over book myself and work becomes every part of me and I am not creating time for God and what really we are called for. The other big thing from this talk was that stories change stories. So many times we are suck in a rut of what we always do but we don’t always let the story unfold, and capture what is truly happening because we are worries about the timeline or getting somewhere after. I love what I get to do and that I get to capture other peoples stories. Search and get to know your clients, know who they really are so you can tell their story they way it should be.
2. Next! We had 1 guy speaker, Carlos Whitaker speak. It took until the middle of his teaching that I realized I owned his worship songs. Any who! He was amazing. The Lord spoke so powerfully through him. I think during his time speaking everyone was either laughing or crying. It was so good. The one thing I took way from it was this quote he said that his dad use to tell him. “Gaze at God and glance at life” This was so good for me to hear. I’m working on prioritizing my life better. God is what is important and we need to pause and see what he has called us to do.
3. Lastly, we heard from my favorite person every, Katelyn James. This woman has a heart of gold and I am so thankful for her. Her talk was all about how we are stealing our own freedom. We get trapped by these lies we want to believe and we are bound and feel like we cant do it. That is not true! God is FAITHFUL. He has plans for each of us. We must let go and follow him! I love how she said this, “Our days are numbered and yet we pick and choose when God can use us” Convicting!? Yes, completely. I know I need to daily call out to Him. I so often fall into traps and think I can do it on my own and forget Who God is. I need Him every day.
These are just three things that I wanted to share with you all that were convicting and challenging to me last week. It was so so good. I needed this week to realize how important it is to stay focus on Christ. Thank you to all the people who put on the Pursuit conference and every speaker. Seriously I have note after note of things I learned. I am so looking forward to another year! For now here are some of the friends I made while at the conference. Love all these ladies dearly!!!
Have a wonderful Friday!
xoxox
