Great Weekend!

I got home today from speaking in Appomattox, VA over the weekend. It was such an anointed and blessed time ... the first women's event Mt.Comfort Methodist Church has ever done. They were so excited and full of enthusiasm. You know, it never ceases to amaze me how the Lord will bring different things out in my speaking. It's like the recipe always stays the same, but the measurements differ each time I share. Last night, I spent some time talking about hypothetical thinking and how Satan uses it to heap guilt on our hearts. Any time you start down the road of "what if I would have done this ... or that ... maybe things would have turned out differently." When those thoughts reach maturity in us the constant conclusion is, "This is all my fault!"
I've never talked about that before, and when it was over last night, a woman came forward to have counseling ... and she shared how for the last three weeks she had been eaten up with hypothetical thoughts and she didn't know how to handle them. Her "friend", a man she had been seeing for the past 6 weeks, took his life after leaving her home for the evening. What's worse, he also took the life of his ex-girlfriend. This poor woman was in such turmoil ... it was mind-boggling. However, the Lord knew she'd be there and that she needed to hear about the dangers of feeding hypothetical thinking. Is that the coolest thing, or what??? God always knows what cream needs to rise to the top of my testimony. I pray that I always feel His leading and sense His prompting with such clarity and purpose.
I love this call on my life. Praise His HOLY name!

I also got to see a house that was built in 1775. It was a three-story white colonial and it looked just like it was taken out of the movie, The Patriot. It might have been in there. It looked so familiar. BEAUTIFUL!!

More later. Off to bed to recoup from the trip. My right eye is twitching like crazy. I hate that! Means I need sleep. Lots o' it.

Big hugs,

Have you given up on me??

Oh people ... I am so sorry!!! I have been so bombarded with life here lately ... and I have been totally ignoring my blog. I've missed you guys, and I will try to do much better this coming week. I promise (ahem ... Katie). :)

I am leaving in the morning for Appomattox, VA to speak at a ladies autumn dinner tomorrow night. I'm excited, as this is the home church of my dear friend, Lisa. Lisa goes with me quite a bit when I speak, and she is my "go-to-gal" for everything. What a servant's heart she has! It's been a while since she has gone anywhere with me, so this will be an extra special trip.

I am still travelling on this road trip of spiritual growth, and I promise that one day soon I will start sharing about it. I told Steve this week that since January of this year I have lost 40 pounds and I've shed about the same amount of denominational baggage as I have stepped away from the Baptist church for the first time in my adult life and really searched nothing but pure Scripture for the answers to all my difficult questions. It's not that I am anti-Baptist by any means ... surely not ... but what I mean is that I truly feel as though God has given me a fresh perspective on my life and He has used all of it to shape who I am in Him. I believe that He's brought me here to prepare me for my broadening ministry work. In every turn, He has been there with amazing conformation. I told Steve that we might need to have our wedding vows renewed because he's practically married to a different woman inside and out now! He said, "Me likes who you were and me likes who you is!! No need to renew vows." What a sweetie!

I read a book excerpt this week that said this,
" Have you dared to see the world as God sees the world, and doing so, you have ended up actually seeing God?" I LOVED that. It is what I feel that I have personally tasted this summer. I have specifically asked the Lord to show me how He sees things, and in doing that, I really know that I have seen HIM ... in some ways, for the first time. It's been glorious. I hunger for the Word like never before and I read it with eager eyes. What a gift to me! More to come. Let me just get a little more craziness behind me and I'll start from the beginning!

My first children's book went to press this week! You can order it at www.tatepublishing.com
It's called, "Benny-With-a-Cowlick Gets Some Very Sad News". It will release nationally on January 2, '08. Eeeeks, I'm excited.

Hope all is well with you! Pray for my trip to VA tomorrow!
Big hugs to all ~