Amazing Day...

As always, I am behind on this blog. I have a running list of posts to write for this blog... hopefully I will get to that soon. Today was such a special day, though, that I wanted to recap before I forgot:

A few weeks ago, I purchased tickets to hear Ann Voskamp speak at the north american christian convention. I have always wanted to go to the NACC and Jason was off of work so he could watch the children.
On my way to the convention, I prayed... I prayed for Jason and the children, I prayed for my experience, and I prayed that I would not "seek" to meet Ann. Back when i was involved in politics, I remember how I made my way to the front of the room to meet politicians. I didn't want to do that. I wanted this to be different. I felt a peace all morning.

I arrived and found a fairly close meter spot, but only had an hour and half worth of quarters. I knew my meter would expire while I was in there, but I figured it was worth it. I didn't have anyone to sit with, but once in the room I ran into our pastor's wife (and an old mentor of mine) and so I sat at her table. Ann's talk was great. She talked about the importance of choosing Joy. My favorite take aways were:

• If we aren't choosing to seek Joy every minute of every day - it our our family (our marriages and our children) that lose.
• She mentioned the fact that we are going to lose every single person we love - we will either bury them or they will bury us. (her telling the story of watching her two year old sister get run over by a truck was incredibly painful as I thought about Havana and Selah...) 
• She said she has wasted so much of her life longing for the future that she forgot the gift of the present. I can relate to that and needed to repent. 

As the lunch ended, someone mentioned that she was going to be hosting a teaching session on blogging! I was already there and so figured why not stay and try to hear her speak. My marriage blog (darbydugger.com) is something that scares me, but it is something that I feel the Lord is asking me to do. I don't write so I don't know why this is where He has me, but oh well. I make my way to her classroom and they are turning people away saying it is filled, but low and behold as I get ready to turn around a lady says, "there is a seat at the front." Somehow... I ended up on the front row. At that point I knew God had me there. 

My view from the front row.

Ann spoke directly to my heart. She talked about blogging for an audience of One. This blog is my personal blog- pretty much like an online journal of our family... the ministry blog is also a lesson journal of sorts - where I write out marriage lessons. I do struggle sometimes with comparing that blog to other ministry blogs. I usually end up discouraged because my numbers aren't big, not many people are active, etc. The Lord is faithful in reminding me that He called them to those blogs and me to this one... different audiences, different purposes.... but still, I end up feeling insecure. However, Ann encouraged people to blog "messy" - to be real - to not worry about the numbers because if we view our blog as an alter... that is all that matters. She said that she doesn't have ads on her blog (I don't either) and that she doesn't allow comments or a site meter. I ended up coming home and taking my site meter off because I would focus on how many people were visiting. It simply isn't necessary. All I need of focus on is writing authenic words and asking the Lord to use them. It was incredibly encouraging. 

After her talk (about 3pm), they said that Ann was not going to be meeting anyone until 5:15. Well, I knew I wasn't going to stay that long, but as I said hi to a few friends (who were hosting/volunteering) they introduced me to Ann. I don't know why, but I feel that the meeting was of the Lord. We met, we talked about kids (she said I didn't look old enough to have four kids, bless her heart, ha). We talked about husbands. We talked about writing. I gave her a copy of my book and she opened it up and said, "Wait. Did you sign it?" "no." "You have to sign it." She had me sign my book. We hugged and she whispered, "You just keep doing what you are doing." I fought back tears. How did she know I needed to hear those words? 

Thank you, Lord, for allowing that experience and for whatever might come of it. To You be the glory. 

As I made my way back to the car- still in disbelief over the events of the day - I found that there was NO ticket on my car (my meter spot had been expired well over an hour). I make my way home and wondered if Jason would have been a little stressed. All four children and I was a few hours late in coming home... I walk in, silence. He had gotten all the  children down for their rest times. He seemed peaceful. The Lord truly blessed that part of my day because He knew if Jason had been stressed it would have made me feel guilty for having been gone, but He gifted me with the perfect day.

We ended the night by taking all the kids to the 4-H fair. What an enjoyable evening.