Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the Hearts at Home National Conference in Normal, IL with one of my best friends, Katrina. Yes, there is a Normal, IL. (But we're convinced there are strange things happening there. Long story short, the GPS was having issues and we found out ours wasn't the only one.)
Hearts-at-Home is a wonderful ministry. They provide encouragement to women of all ages in all stages of motherhood. Hearts at Home’s mission is to encourage, educate, and equip every mom in every season of motherhood using Christian values to strengthen families.
Katrina and I left her house at 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning. You read that right, 4 a.m. We knew it would take us about 3 1/2 hours to get to the conference. Then we needed to check-in, figure out where we were going and find a good seat before the opening speakers.
We were greeted with a beautiful sunrise.
One of the opening speakers were Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. I'll admit, I was excited to see them, with the hopes of meeting them before we left. They gave their testimony and told us about how God is working in their lives. We also heard from Jill Savage; speaker, author and CEO of Hearts at home. And the emcee of this year's conference was Brenda Paccamonti, she is the Executive Director of Resources for Hearts at Home and was hilarious!
Our first workshop was also with the Duggars. They gave us some practical parenting and marriage tips. Some things I took away from them are: get God's word into the hearts of your children, teach them how to love God and love others. I also learned the effectiveness of speaking in a soft, sing-songy voice. You check out more on the Duggars at their website duggarfamily.com
Our next workshop was with Marla "flylady" Cilley. Hmmm....how to describe the flylady. She loves organization and teaching others how to regain control of your house and home. Some things I took away from her are: to have a before bed routine to get a jump start on your next day. She emphasized that keeping your stuff is a lack of faith in God to provide for you. And to bless someone else with your things that you no longer need. You can get a lot of tips from her on flylady.net
After the flylady we heard from Marianne Miller. She is Crown Financial Ministries Counselor, a Certified Parenting Instructor, and a She Speaks graduate. Yesterday she gave us some tips on Raising Grateful Kids. We learned a lot of tips on teaching our kids contentment, that we are not our stuff and we need to help our kids find their identity in Christ. We also learned how to teach our children financial discernment with too many tips to mention. Read more info here mariannemiller.com
By this time our brains were tired and fried. So we decided to take a break and skip the last workshop. We took a walk to stretch our legs and check out the books that were for sale. I did find a really nice Prayer Journal that I bought. We took some time to chat with some other moms we ran into then went to find some seats for the final session.
Katrina waiting for the final session. By this time we were tired, hot, sweaty and our brain's were fried.
To end the day we had a really good session with Dr. Juli Slattery, from Focus on the Family She taught us that in order to survive motherhood we need to have wisdom. And the best place to gain wisdom is from God. Three ways to get it are to: Desire it- make it a priority. Regonize where it comes from- a good place to start is to read the 31 chapters of Proverbs. And to Sit daily at the doorsteps of wisdom- get on your knees, ask specifically for what you need and make sure you listen. Take a peek at focusonthefamily.com
Of all the speakers we listened too. I came away from Juli's speech the most moved. I know that I can not be a great mother to the children God has blessed us with alone. I need God's help, guidance and wisdom. I know that He also puts amazing people in my life to give me advice, friendship and love.
I am so happy that God put things in motion for me to be able to go to such an amazing event. Katrina and I are already making plans to go to next year's conference. I know we will be recruiting other mom's to go with us.
Katrina and I before getting back in the car for our long ride home.
Until next time~
Anita
