She Speaks but HE SPOKE 2008 part 2

***Please note, part one is the previous post! I promise to not go on forever with this! Just one more day after this!

As Lysa’s words continued to capture my heart one by one, I began to think about this verse my friend mentioned to me. Why would the Lord tell her to tell me that verse? It was 1 Samuel 16:7 “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Lysa made one statement that change my outlook forever on this: “David was overlooked by everyone but handpicked by God.”

As I thought about those words, I began to to think of my blogging friend, Sharon. And about one time a comment she had left me one time to encourage me. She said something to the sorts of, “Nicki! God sees you! He sees you waving your hands and jumping up and down!” And it was all starting to make sense through these words that Lysa was speaking.

Bottom line is, it’s not about the one great big act, it’s about the daily roads of preparation! And I thought about how long I had been preparing to just attend this conference. How much God saw the hopes and dreams in my heart! How much he saw the tears of joy I cried as each donation came in! How much I longed to be right where He showed me! The prayers, the pep talks, the “but God’s”. They didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. I truly felt His assurance.

Even still, I thought about how much longer I will have to keep preparing for what IS to come! I imagine you can relate to something along the lines of this in your life too. We are all waiting on God for something. Keep on! Keep trusting! Keep waiting! Keep believing!

I love how my friend, Leigh, says it: “I want to be God’s go-to girl.” And that couldn’t say it any better than how I felt at that moment. We just have to have the daily, hourly, moment by moment devotion to Him. Then through simple steps, day by day, He will begin to reveal His plan for our lives!

It was incredible!

The next session I went to was in fact the only blogging session I got to go to. It was on, “What works and doesn’t work in blogging”. I don’t know how much I can share, since the BooMama put the fear of God in me (I’m so kidding) about using other people’s stuff! And since I felt like this was her stuff and I don’t know what she has planned for her world of information, I am going to just share a little bit. But please note, I’m quoting HER. =)

1. She took a poll on her blog about music on other’s blog. You know the little IPOD type things?? She said it’s distracting and most people don’t like it. For me, it just scares me when I pop on someone’s blog and the music jumps on! So I always have my sound down.

2. Be who you are in blogging. She said it’s really easy to catch on to other’s lingo in the way they write, but make a good effort to not use “their” phrases or similar names for blogs. BE YOU. And IF you use someone eles’s stuff, quote them.

3. She said to use a light background with dark text and that your blog should reflect your personality. Write frequently and write well. (ya’ll, I WAS convicted about the writing well part! As much as this is often just my ramblings, it’s not always well written! Please accept my apologies!)

4. And she said to return comments on other’s blogs, not yours. I’m learning.

There was so much more, but I’m sure she will be posting more about this on her blog so check her out! But the group of them were very informative, very entertaining and very helpful! I met a lot of bloggers and look foreword to keeping up with them!

As I began taking the next steps down a long hallway and up these spiral stairs to my next session, I began thinking about the week before and all that had happened. I was headed towards my speaker’s evaluation groups and I felt like my throat was going to fall to my knees! And then I smiled as I was reminded that this was apart of God’s plan!

You see, last week I was so upset because there had been a mistake in my registration and I wasn’t going to be able to participate in this part, which for me, was the BIGGEST part! As I released it all into God’s hands, God quickly reminded me that He does in deed have a big sense of humor. Ha ha ha.(smiles)

I had signed up for the beginner’s group sessions because duh, I was one! =)As I was praying and praying about what God was leading me to do about this group time the Lord continually showed me HE had a plan. Late one night, I got an e-mail from the ladies at P31. It said, “We found you a group! It’s intermediate, are you ok with that? Your leader is Rachel Olsen, she’s great.” Well, I was WHOO HOOING about the Rachel Olsen part because I love her blog, but the intermediate part? I was going, “Oh Lordy.” as the knots in my stomach tossed and turned.

Scared out of my mind, I continued that walk and suddenly I heard the sweet funny voice of a great southern lady named Kay! It makes me smile just thinking about her, and not just because of her great accent! Realizing we were headed the same way, we began to chat. I quickly confessed my “I’m really a beginner’s groupie” and she confessed her “I’m really not prepared for this fear”. And we both began to feel a little more at ease. Throughout our time together, she became very near and dear to this girl’s heart. =)

I knocked on the door and Rachel Olsen from Proverbs 31, greeted us with a warm smile. Taking the comfy seat on the couch we waited for our other group members to arrive. As they walked in, one by one, my nerves became so real and strong to me. I really thought I was going to have to bury myself in this couch. After I sat down, I quickly felt like I was going to throw up everywhere! But thankfully, I did not.

We each all waited and listened anxiously for her to call the first person’s name. And then we all held our breath through each name she continued to call out. I kept saying in my mind, “Lord, I know I’m not last right???”. I was pretty close to last! For your future reference if you are involved with speaking in groups like this, go first, if you have a choice!! Then your nerves will be calm for the remaining time, and you will be over and done with it! The ladies were all great and I enjoyed hearing each of their hearts! But all the while my heart was pounding louder, and louder, and louder! I thought the girl sitting next to me might dial 911.

I’m kidding!

And then it came, “Nicki, you’re next”. I took my shaky steps towards the front of that room. I was scared. My stomach was in KNOTS. “Who was I to speak in front of these ladies? What did I have to say that was anything significant? Oh dear, what have I done Lord?” were all the thoughts that consumed me. But they didn’t matter, I was standing there, they were looking at me and I had to say something!

“Ready?” Rachel asked. I nodded nervously and took another big deep breath for the gazillionth time.

To be continued…