My heart is at home
Packing up for a 9.5 hour drive to Normal, Illinois, to speak at Hearts at Home. I’m so excited. This is one of the best mom parties of the year. Great speakers. Amazing music. Encouragement. And lots of chocolate!
My good friend and Proverbs 31 Ministries team sister will also be there, which just makes it better.
I don’t normally drive, but I look forward to a time of just hanging out and praying and talking to God about the women I will meet.
The guy I love is climbing on a jet plane the day after I get home. He’s working on addtl. training for his job as a counselor with youth who struggle with addictions. It’s rare that I go very long without seeing him, and I know I’ll miss him like crazy, but I’m excited that he’s doing something he absolutely loves.
When I get home I plan to play in the dirt for three or four days and plant some bulbs. Sometimes we just need to take time to do nothing but enjoy the small things around us. I can’t remember the last time that happened, which can only mean it’s past due.
I hope you will pray with me as I connect with these beautiful moms, and new friends as I talk about the things I love most — faith and family.
Posted by Suzie @
7:35 pm |
Moms, you matter
I’m sitting in my “cave” at the library, the lights down low as the fluorescent lights shine brightly just a few feet away. I’m listening to a little country music on Pandora, not usually my style but it fits the rainy day outside.
My weekend was full. Speaking. A wedding. Friends and family.
Now I’m turning my focus to preparing for Hearts at Home. It’s an amazing conference for moms. Thousands of moms across the nation attend, but it was started by a mom who needed other people. A mom who hoped that her small Bible study might be successful. A mom that didn’t try to make her home perfect or even her life perfect before she opened her home to the women who were seeking the same thing she was — encouragement, friendship, support.
And now it’s an Intl. conference that pulls in women from all over the world, and it reaches outside of Normal, IL to Minnesota, California, Michigan women, but also to women in Budapest, Hungary, in Vienna, Austria, in Weisbaden, Germany.
How in the world does that happen? (more…)
Posted by Suzie @
12:12 pm |
it makes me happy
I saw them!
Green shoots pushing through the ground. Little buds of yellow peeking through. After one of the coldest winters Oklahoma has experienced in a while, it appears spring just might show up after all!
Some girls like diamonds. Others like shoes. I love flowers.
Not the kind that show up in a vase, but the ones that crop up in gardens, along the highway, and if I’m lucky in my own front yard.
I’m missing the feeling of dirt running through my fingers.
I’m missing sitting in the gentle spring sun and planting Impatiens and Gerber Daisies and a myriad of other species. I drove by an Atwoods today and saw naked trees in green pots, and I’m already thinking about where to place one.
For me, spring is life. It’s warmth. It’s joy.
It makes me happy.
Posted by Suzie @
12:15 pm |
Leaving some baggage behind at DEN
I sat in the Denver airport yesterday for six hours, and then another hour on the tarmac. That’s a lot of time to think.
I heard a lot of great speakers at the conference in downtown Denver this past week. That’s a huge benefit of teaching at these conferences, in that I am privileged to sit under the teaching and speaking of people I truly respect. Like Max Lucado. Kendra Smiley. Phillip Yancy. Phil Vischer.
One thing that I’ve learned about great speakers/pastors/lay people is that no matter how polished it is, or how great the powerpoint presentation or videos, if the audience doesn’t remember it the next day or know what do do with the message, then it’s just a message.
But if you wake up thinking about it the next day, and the next, it’s more than a message. It’s a call to action. Somehow those words transcended into a “you and God” moment, and you know that you need to do business with your Creator. (more…)
Posted by Suzie @
12:11 pm |
Yes, but…
God has been speaking to my heart for several months. I hear Him. I know what He is saying. But am I willing to do it?
The answer is yes, of course, but…
And that’s the part I’ve got to put down.
Because on the other side of that but is God.
Not my dreams. Not my relationships. Not my marriage. Not my goals. Not my five year plan. Not my desire to write another book. Not my speaking.
Just God.
Posted by Suzie @
11:00 pm |
girl, or boy?
By 9:00 a.m. tomorrow I’ll know whether my grandbaby to be is a boy or a girl!
The last test said 75% sure of one sex, but he or she was being modest so they couldn’t say for sure.
How excited am I?
Well, on a scale of 1 to 10, about 100. (more…)
Posted by Suzie @
6:43 am |
