Women Equipping Women

What an incredible blessing this day has been!

God brought me to an amazing Women Equipping Women conference today at Flint Hills Christian Church, in Emporia. Lisa Hughes, author, speaker, pastor's wife, mom and a beautiful example of the Christian woman, talked about living with unmet expectations.

Now, I could probably write pages and pages of everything that this conference taught me and what opened up in my heart today. I was so moved and convicted. It was a breath of fresh air. It brought me so much peace. 

Here are some of my favorite thoughts from Lisa's sessions:

• At the root of unmet expectations lies discontentment - wanting something "better" or different.
• The fruit of unmet expectations/discontentment can look like many things:
• bitterness
• anger
• impatience
• irritability/a grumpy attitude
• depression
• sorrow/moping
• disunity/conflict
• "Grown-up pouting" (the classic: -How are you? -FINE.)
• Jealousy
• distrust in God/others
• covetousness
• hypocrisy 
• Fear/anxiety
• These are all symptoms (fruit) of a deeper heart issue: discontentment. 

• Remember: The Lord, who is sovereign over everything, allows everything in your life to happen. Even that which is difficult, uncomfortable or painful, He allows to happen for our good.
• Remember: The Holy Spirit is transforming your heart and your life, and this is a process. God is in complete control over your spiritual growth - the timing, everything.
• Contentment is being satisfied, not needing/wanting anything else in order to be happy/fulfilled
• How we think affects our life. Wring thinking, namely wrong thinking about God and Christ, must be corrected.
• Every sin we commit can be traced back to a wrong view of God. We must build a foundation of right thinking.
• I am a sinner and deserve everything that happens to me.
• My trials are fewer than my sins.
• If I am experiencing unmet expectations it is because God has deemed it good for me.
• The Lord will never disappoint me.
• Sometimes we think we'll get to a point in our life where we won't struggle. This is not true. The deeper God works in us, the more yucky stuff there is to dig up. We continue to grow.

• He doesn't allow anything to happen that He hasn't deemed good for us.

 Love it.
I deeply encourage you to make the time to listen to these sessions and allow God to work in your heart by them.

Flint Hills will be posting Lisa's sessions on their website very soon - keep an eye out for the link!

Lisa also has a book that I'm very excited to dive into: God's Priorities for Today's Woman, [Discovering God's Plan for You].

I could not wait to hop on here and share these wonderful truths with all of you. 

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ!

No matter what has happened, what I am in the midst of, and whatever is to come, I can rest assured that the God of the universe has deemed it good.

Have a blessed night, everyone. 

Grace and Peace,

Caroline