Deeper Still

I went to Deeper Still this weekend, literally and figuratively.  The girls and I hit the road to Louisville and had the pleasure and honor to sit under the teaching of Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore.  It wasn't what I was expecting...it was better.  It was rhema.... and I pray that it is taken root deep in my heart. I still have much to process and apply, but here's a few highlights.

Kay Arthur- Seriously- she brought us the Gospel straight up.  At first I didn't think this session was as "good" or had as much for me as the other two.  But as I've thought about it I was wrong.  Kay told us that our society is full of silly women who are too consumed with the things of this world to be focused on what really matters.  I don't want to be a silly woman!  And I'm committed to not being one.  Every point she made kept coming back to the Gospel and the power of it and challenging us to really live in that power.  I think the greatest gift she gave me was reminding me of the power of The Word.  I need to be drowning myself in the Truth and soaking in the Word so that whatever comes my way, the Word will pour back out.  It doesn't matter what people say or do to me, I'm so full of the Word and His love, that His love comes back out.  It was so good and rich and deep.

Priscilla Shirer- This was my first time to have the pleasure of hearing Priscilla teach and I can honestly say my life is better for it.  There is no way to sum up this session because I'm still knee deep in processing through my five pages of notes.  One of her key points was that anything that we are enjoying outside the boundaries it's intended for goes haywire and we become enslaved.  She also talked about the need for Sabbath in our lives- not necessarily a whole day of no work, but creating some breathing room, a margin, so that He has room to come in to be with us.  She reminded us that it is in our nature to hold on too tight, to over-do and that's why God gives us boundaries.  When we hold on too tight, what we're left with becomes foul.  There was so much practical application in her message.  I'm so excited to start her Jonah study with my girls and to dig into "One in a Million" on my own.

Beth Moore- I adore Beth and her session was not only the final one of the conference, but of Deeper Still as this was the last event.  The Lord gave her such a perfect word to end on about generations.  She taught out of 2 Timothy and used Lois, Eunice and Timothy as examples of the faithfulness and purpose of each generation.  Her session for me can be wrapped up in something she said to us as she ended.  We were speaking a blessing/challenge over each generation and to our group she asked the Lord that we would "pay the price of self-discipline." That phrase hit me hard and is something I will not soon forget.  I want things to come easy to me, to not be too hard (hello, silly woman), but I'm promised nothing of the sort.  I have prayed in the past that the Lord would make it easy for me to get our of bed early to have a quiet time.  And while I have no doubt He could do that, He hasn't chosen to at this point to make me hop right out of bed at dark thirty. It is going to cost me something to deepen my relationship with Him and I need to be ready and willing to pay that price.  This is a game changing point for me and is challenging the way I think about everything.

And of course there was much laughter and sharing and encouraging one another, but that's what I always get with these three.  Who knew what we were getting into with each other when we simply started a Bible study together more then three years ago?  The Lord has grown us together and connected our hearts in a way that doesn't come along too often.  I am so thankful for these women and the gift they are in my life.  And I'm so thankful that they share with me a desire to be growing and going deeper.  Love you, girls!

A great weekend, in every way imaginable.