“”She Speaks is a promise kept to God  to help other women who are called to serve God through writing,speaking and leadership.”

Lysa Terkeurst

For the past few years I have wanted to attend She Speaks, which is a conference by the ministry of Proverbs 31 Women. But, for one reason or another I could not make it happen. Well, this year a small window of opportunity opened up right between our family vacation and my daughter’s ballet camp. My husband signed me up giving me his blessing to go. This meant he would need to take off work and be super dad for five days. This is no small sacrifice, I assure you.

I always assumed I would attend the writers portion of the conference.  But,  when my husband signed me up, he chose the speakers track instead. This holy push was needed, but I am not lying when I tell you it made the whole experience a bit nerving. Choosing the speaker’s track meant on the last day of conference I had to give a 5 minute talk to 12 lovely new friends for a gentle critique.

They were all amazingly kind, even though I lost my place in the last minute of my talk and ended up going over time by about 20 seconds. Still, God used it to confirm something I’ve known for awhile, but I needed to hear with my own ears. They said, “You are a Bible teacher.” Have mercy, can you believe they all agreed?

It was, in fact the Bible teaching by Lysa Terkeurst and others that grabbed my heart during the conference. My heart was so encouraged every time they opened the Word to build into our hearts.  I was fed Spiritually, encouraged to grow as a leader, and trained to use my God given gifts. 

Here are a few of my notes, from various sessions:

• “We must not excuse God’s protocol to carry out our good program.” – Lysa Terkeurst
• “Lord, I pray I am not the barrier You have to overcome.” – Whitney Capps
• “One wise woman – she brought wisdom to the moment.” (Teaching on 2 Samuel 20:22) –  Lysa Terkeurst
• “Often it is being faithful to tuck our words into the small places that matter most…”  – Lysa Terkeurst
• “God has placed us here to influence others for Him.” – Michael Hyatt
• “When we have our eyes on our sister we can’t look at God.” – Karen Ehman
• “The way to fall in love with God’s Word is to read it.” – Wendy Pope
• “My teaching is most effective when I live the Word, learn the Word, and love the Word.” – Wendy Pope
• “We are only His workmanship in the lives of a few woman for a short time. ” – Wendy Pope
• “It is a desire in your heart for more of what He has for you. It’s not really about size at all – it’s about what perfectly fits your heart.” – Holley Gerth
• God knows where you are – He has placed you with the people you need around you.” – Lysa Terkeurst
• “All you have to do is bring your little tiny bit of willingness and God will be faithful to it. ” – Lysa Terkeurst

And as a sweet bonus, here are just a few friends I had the chance to see (and photograph) while I was at the conference…

 {Natalie, Tracie, Holley, Jen, & Rachel}

The night before I gave my talk, my husband reminded me of something we learned 22 years ago on a summer mission project. He said:

“Surround yourself with people and situations where God stretches you so much, that you don’t want to go back to how you were before.”  – Jim, our project director

Was I stretched at She Speaks? Oh my word, yes and it was not fun. But, do I want to go back to the way I was before? The answer to that is a resounding, “no.”

This is the year of Becoming who God wants me to be. I’m so grateful He continues to draw me out, stretch me, and call me further on.  He certainly knew, She Speaks would be a beautiful part of making that happen this year.

xo,

Stacey