Challenged

I've had so much else going on that it was nice not to have to worry about blogging for a couple weeks. I have pictures loaded onto the computer, so I'll try to update you as best I can along with a few pictures. Over the course of the past few weeks, I have had a couple of things that the Lord has been challenging me with, and in this post I'd like to share them with you.

August 10-11 was the Strong in the Lord conference, and August 13-14 was the Radiant Purity conference, both in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I came away from them so encouraged and challenged. One of the things that I was challenged with the most was totally surrendering my teen years to the Lord and asking Him to give me a passionate love for Him and His Word. I want Him to be the center of my life so that He is the one who controls my thoughts, actions, and words. We can't gain a love for the Lord if we aren't continually in His Word, and I'll have to admit that though I do read the Bible often, I probably don't read it as faithfully as I should. I have committed to trying to read at least one chapter of the Bible every day, but I know that in my own strength I can't do it. It's only by His strength that I can be diligent about it.

Did any of you attend any of the conferences in either Iowa or Minnesota? If so, I'd enjoy hearing your comments about it. If you would like to share something that you learned, I'd love to hear that as well!

{A chalk drawing from one of the "Chalk Talks" that Sarah Mally gave at the Radiant Purity conference}

August 18th we performed our quartet for 4-H Share the Fun at the State Fair. It was a great learning experience, and we all enjoyed it. We were encouraged to find out later that the judge who was giving comments (it wasn't a contest, she just commented on each performance) was also a Christian! 

After we were done performing, another girl that had also performed that night came up to Alexandra and I, and we got into a short conversation with her. Alexandra asked her if she was a Christian, because the song she had done her dance to sounded like a Christian song. She said that she wasn't, and then she mentioned that we seemed so joyful while we were performing our song. I told her that it was because of Jesus in our lives, and the conversation pretty much ended there. Later as I was thinking about it, and I wish that I would have been prepared. Prepared to give an answer. In 1 Peter 3:15 it says, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect". Here the Lord gave me an opportunity to be a witness, and I wasn't ready to give an answer. How many times does the Lord give us opportunities, but we aren't equipped and ready? This incident really challenged me to not let this happen again. Next time, I want to be prepared.

 {Pictures from State Fair}

Those two events took up a majority of my time the past few weeks, and I hope I didn't bore you with details :)  There were so many good topics covered at the Bright Lights conferences, so they'll probably make their way onto this blog in the near future. As I close this post, I want to challenge you with two things...to be passionately in love with the Lord, and to always be ready to give an answer.