Write On!

I was blessed to be able to attend the annual women's conference held at Century Baptist this year and I must admit, I was completely blown away by the amazing speaker who had quite a story to tell. Gwen Damlo from KNDR, Carol Kent and myself. The conference kicked off on Friday evening with a wonderful time of praise and worship. Shortly afterwards every lady in attendance listened intently as speaker and author, Carol Kent told the story of when her only child, Jason Kent was arrested for murder. She went on to tell us about the reality of living "a new kind of normal" that included not only her son's conviction but his sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Honestly, I had a tough time comprehending how a devout Christian could carry out such a horrendous act but one would have to know the whole story to understand why he did. He thought he was protecting his young stepdaughters from further abuse by their biological father. Jas...

Welcome to my Throwback Thursday where I'll be featuring a blast from the past in the form of photos, blog post or who knows what else! This post is from April 24, 2012 that I had on a different blog that I have since taken down. It features Miss Rodeo America Ashley Andrews Alderson speaking at a Charity Lutheran's Women's Event on how she won the crown while beating cancer. ______________________ Miss Rodeo America, Ashley Andrews Alderson, spoke at a women’s luncheon event called “Faith through Adversity.” The event was put on by Charity Lutheran’s Charity Women in Mission for Christ. As Ashley spoke, it was quite apparent this former rodeo queen was not only beautiful on the outside but inside as well. Ashley, originally from the small community of Bowman, was crowned Miss Rodeo North Dakota in 2006. During her reign, she was diagnosed with a type of cancer called Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She endured chemotherapy treatments for six months. Through it all, she vowed...

Every year I look forward to attending the JOY Breakfast, an annual event put on by JOY International right here in Bismarck, ND. Not only do I look forward to attending this amazing event that draws nearly 700 women, I also look forward to volunteering and helping out as needed. This year I was a table hostess and helped put together over 100 name tags for all the hostesses, volunteers and leadership team. Each year, the breakfast has a wonderful nationally-recognized speaker. This year, Bismarck was blessed to have Micca Campbell, a speaker with Proverbs 31 ministry, fly here from her warm home in Nashville, Tennessee. She talked about the secret to finding contentment and gave part of her testimony which entailed becoming a widow at the age of 21 while being a new mom. Along with the speaker there was beautiful music, a skit that every woman could relate to, prayer and lots of door prizes. I had so much fun seeing my JOY friends and meeting some new ones too. I was also blessed ...

Many of my facebook friends are doing a 30 Days of Thankfulness and post each day something they are thankful for. I love that they are doing this and it is fun reading people's thankful posts. Although I don't write my own thankful posts on facebook, it does cause me to think about the things for which I am thankful. While I didn't come up with 30, I do have a top ten list of things I have been especially thankful for this past year: 1. First and foremost I am thankful for my Christian faith that helped me through some very difficult and challenging days this past year. I don't know what I would do without Jesus in my life. As a child, I grew up in the church but for 8 long years, I wandered away from God, living a life of rebellion. I finally went back to Him in the year 2000 and that was the best decision I could have ever made! I will forever be grateful for those who were praying for me at that time in my life. 2. I am so very thankful for my amazing church f...

One prayer I’ve often heard from women is that God would lead them in the direction that God desires for them to go. I myself have prayed that prayer many times. I believe that part of God’s calling and direction for our lives is to follow our dreams and passions – after all, it is God who places those desires in our hearts. But how do we know what those passions are? Or how do we know if we even have a passion for something?  Is photography a passion of yours? According to speaker, mom and missionary, Lauri Desir, there are seven questions you can ask yourself that will help you to determine your passion. These seven questions include:  1. What puts a smile on my face?  2. What do I find easy  3. What sparks my creativity?  4. What would I do for free?  5. What do I like to talk about?  6. What makes me unafraid of failure?  7. What would I regret not having tried?  For me, in thinking about these questions, I know that writin...