I can honestly say I wasn't going into the weekend expecting a whole lot. I had gone before a few years back, and Friday night was incredible, but Saturday just wasn't. Going into Friday night, I was mostly excited to stay with some sweet friends at a hotel in Dallas. God had other plans.
I think the speaker that struck me the most was Lisa Whelchel, (Blaire from the Facts of Life.) She talked a lot about friendships. One thing that she said that made so much sense is that you don't want to be friends with the people that seem to have everything together. They're like Teflon...everything just slips right off. In my experience with people like this, it's impossible to confide in someone who never admits to faults. How could I ever be 'real' with someone who is so put together? Mostly because I am not. I am flawed and imperfect. I guess you could say I am perfectly flawed. =0)
After the speakers had all spoke, we took a break and then started to discuss when we should leave.I had never heard Mandisa, so I figured we could stay for a couple of songs and then leave a little early to beat the crowd of people. Mandisa took the stage and started out with some fun girls songs, but then BAM!! She started singing a song called "Stronger" and I just began to cry. I wept through every single song she sang. "Broken Hallelujah" was another that just pierced my heart. The crazy thing about it is I wasn't necessary broken over anything that had to do with me, but mostly God had put one of my dearest friends on my heart. I wanted so badly for her to be there with me, but I think mostly, I just wanted her to hear the words I was hearing. We ended up leaving about 10 minutes early, and then went back to our hotel.
God just continued to work. We sat on the 3rd floor deck of our hotel and just laughed and cried. We talked about so much, pretty much everything you could imagine. Happy things, sad things and all things in between. We sat up there talking until about 2:30-3 in the morning. It was amazing, and while we knew we had to get up early, we were looking forward to Saturday and what it would hold for us.
6AM came early. We got ready, had breakfast. Then we just began to talk. The conversations turned into tears and the tears became prayers. It was truly the most wonderful time. We didn't make it to Day 2 of Women of Faith, but God did a work in us that we didn't expect.
I think this quote I found yesterday sums up the experience,"Jesus came not to call people who think they are righteous, but people who know they are sinful." AW Tozer. My friends and I are far from righteous, SO far from where we should be. The incredible thing is we KNOW this, we ADMIT this, and we are all
striving to be more like Christ.
God knew exactly what He had in store for all of us. He gave my friends and I an experience we will never forget. We are each others velcro...we're all a little cooky, so we stick together. ;-) No Teflon here! =0)
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