To start off the month of October, I was blessed by my sweet friend, Stacy who came out to visit from Minnesota. She was able to visit this time without her children and we attended the Women of Faith Conference in Phoenix (http://www.womenoffaith.com/) AND stayed overnight at a hotel WITHOUT CHILDREN! It was so great to get to spend that time with her. It has been six years since the last time we had been together without our children! I love it when our kiddos get to play and get to know each other, but any Mom out there knows how much (or how little) quality conversation takes place when you are surrounded by small children! :-) I think we have started and never finished at least 1000 conversations over the years! This weekend gave us the chance to talk about so much more than the surface topics...we got the chance to talk about the past, the here and now, and about our hopes for the future. The Women of Faith Conference gave us such a springboard of topics to helped us dig into some soul searching about our lives and the plans God had for us and the plans He still plans to lay before us. I am so thankful for that precious time I had to spend with Stacy!!!
The Women of Faith Conference is also a special time for me because it is a time each year I get to spend with a group of my friends from Phoenix, as well. This was our fourth consecutive year attending and I can’t even tell you how blessed I am each year by the entire weekend. It is amazing how God works and how He can make one event touch the lives of each one of the thousands of women in attendance. If you think about it….how different must all our lives be? Imagine the situations and stories represented by the thousands there? But still He is able to work through the writing, speaking, and worshiping to speak words of truth to each and every woman there. Does each year play as powerful a role in my life as the previous? No. But, does God use the time to bless me and change me? Yes! He is so amazing…ALL THE TIME!!
The blessing I thank Him most for during these weekends is the blessing of friendship that He has so lovingly placed upon me. One of the hurts that I had allowed to, almost in a sense, define me, was a lack of trust in the love and friendship given by others. Several life experiences had caused my heart to be broken in several pieces way too many times. Trust became a long journey of faith. Step by step I was learning about the work that the Holy Spirit could do in my life.
I remember four years ago sitting at the Women of Faith Conference and being touched by the depth of the friendships the speakers had with each other. I heard the speakers endearingly refer to each other as their “front porch” friends, and be described as “Jesus with skin on”. I looked around at the women I was attending the conference with and wondered if any of these women would eventually become that to me. I asked God to open my heart completely and help me trust in Him to guide me into blessed relationships. Guess what? He did it!!! Many of those women have become “Jesus with skin on” to me. They love me the way Jesus tells us to love others and I am so incredibly in awe and so incredibly thankful for how God worked in my life to answer my prayers! He is so good…ALL THE TIME!!!! I will forever remember to cherish the blessing of friendship He has given me and I never want to forget to take time to hang out on the front porch with those He has chosen to place in my life!
Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel. Proverbs 27:9
