She Speaks 2011

I'm participating in a Meme, thanks to Chatty Kelly!  If you went to She Speaks 2011, write a blog post answering these questions and link up over at her blog.

When I signed up to attend She Speaks 2011, I didn't know what to expect.  I had no real goals in attending, other than to have fun with my friend, Kelly Combs.  But God knew exactly what He was doing when he had me sign up!  He knew it was time to move my ministry into the next level.

As I packed for the conference, I had this analogy: 11 years ago, I was packing to go give birth to my son, and on the first day of the conference, I was wondering if I would be giving birth to a new ministry. God did exactly that!  He took a two year old dream of a ministry called Titus 2 and I believe birthed it in me!  Just as a newborn is frail and doesn't do much at first, my ministry is new and frail.  I know the next step to take but don't know what it will look like, or be like when it's full-grown, similar to a newborn baby.

Now here are some questions from the Meme:

1. Best Advice.  I learned a lesson over the course of the weekend.  Four different times, women told how they had to give up or say "no" to something they wanted because God told them to.  They had to fight the flesh but made the right choice.  All four times, God exponentially blessed them with a huge return at a later time.  I'm not going to give things up or say "no" to receive something, but rather it showed me that obedience is the most important thing, and that God does have our best interest in His mind.

2. Best lesson learned in a session.  Lysa Terkeurst taught about having a "sticky point" that you weave throughout your talk.  This is going to be the phrase they take away with them!  I LOVE THAT!  I will use this advice in my future talks.

3. What are you going to do with what you learned?  What's your next step?  I am going to do a few things.  First I will expand and polish two speeches I have in my heart.  Next I will work on my "brand" or ministry focus.  After that, I plan to look for opportunities to use my talks to encourage women!

4. Anything else you want to share?  I participated in a speaker evaluation group. The focus of my evaluations became my "melodic" voice and that I was fun to watch.  I was surprised about these two strengths, and realized when my six children were younger and I home schooled, I read to them a lot.  In order to make the books interesting, I learned how to vary my voice and really get into the characters.  At the time, I never dreamt this would be "training" for a future ministry!  God has shown me how everything that happens in my life is part of His plan for my future!