This is my third and final post about my Women of Faith experience last weekend. I had mixed impressions of individual parts of the event, however, ultimately there are a few lasting impressions which will change the way I relate to various areas of life. Lisa Whelchel - thank you for teaching me the difference between transparent and vulnerable. Brenda Warner - you are my hero. Andy Andrews - I will never forget the Butterfly Effect. Patsy Clairmont - thank you for making your bed! To all the "porch" members: I am inspired by your love for each other, by your friendships which transcend generations, by your joy in serving and worshipping and living your life in front of others for God's glory. Made me realize that I am already blessed with a porch full of incredible women -- love this metaphor and look forward to sharing it with my friends!
While there were take-aways from nearly every session, I was expecting more of a "ladies, grab your Bible and let's dig in to some Biblical truths" sort of teaching. Maybe not for every session. But I did expect to need my Bible at some point during the weekend. I love being able to scribble a million notes in the margins of my Bible. The speakers did a great job of creating a "need" for their books/resources by whetting our appetites with their compelling stories and I will be ordering several of their books in the next few weeks. But books won't ultimately satisfy my spiritual hunger & thirst. They will feed my need and love for knowledge. They will challenge me and inspire me. However, I found myself wishing that the speakers had emphasized the Bible as the ultimate source for life and godliness a lot more than they did.
Women of Faith was definitely "over the top" - to the point that I was "over the top" at the end of each session -- (I tend to hit sensory overload quicker than most). I am a slow processor. I like to process things by journaling or talking them out. I wish I would have trusted more in the rhythm and build of the overall program so that my "processing" would have happened in real-time rather than after-the-fact time.
In my quest to de-brief and process this event, I've begun to take advantage of the abundant resources available on the Women of Faith website. I encourage you to join the WOF online community, participate in a Book Club, get some sweet discounts. I'm looking forward to diving in and making the most of what the WOF team have put together as practical tools for everyday life.
[Confession: due to a scheduling error I found myself not able to attend the afternoon session on Saturday -- I was instead driving my 17-yr-old son to the mall to shop for Homecoming attire]
[I was given 2 free admissions to the event, courtesy of BookSneeze, in exchange for a blog review.]
