Women Of Faith Part 2

Friday Morning was TONS of fun. Got to road trip over 3 hours in the car with some awesome ladies (now known as my monkeys after this day). I got to eat some chocolate covered peanut butter; don't get to have that at home because one of my girls has a nut allergy. Our group leader had created these awesome shirts for our group to wear at the conference. We voted for a pumpkin orange for easy spying. My one friend and I decided to rebel and wear our shirts both days (with another shirt underneath) and it worked out in our favor because the other ladies in our group could easily spy us and find our seats again when they went off for a break.

 
Friday Morning Session:

Shelia Walsh:

• She found in her dying what she longed for in her living.

• Romans 8: 38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Mark 5: 25-29 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

• There are 603 rules in the Old Testament beyond the 10 Commandments.
•  Leviticus 15:25 “‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period.²⁶ Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. ²⁷ Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.

• So the woman from Mark was alone for 12 years. She had no contact with anyone. If she would even come close to bumping into someone on the street, she would have to yell out that she was not clean. Can you imagine being alone for 12 years and not being able to touch anyone? Jesus gave a chance for a bigger opportunity than she asked for. He announce to all that her faith had made her clean so that she could immediately being to rejoin society and being to enjoy all that God intended for her.

• Shame is more devastating than guilt.

• Lay your baggage down and be free.

Shelia was amazing to listen to. Her accent and her passion for what she is saying just mesmerizes you. Her bio shares that she is an author, singer, television personality, and dog walker who does it all while wearing killer heels. She shares the real issues many of us deal with every day. She is currently working on completing her Master's degree in Divinity.

Henry Cloud:

Called himself the token guy of the day

• It's the only place I feel accepted because of my man bag
• allow you to think about things that don't exist yet
• we all have issues and problems

1. clinical world - where we hurt
2. relationship world
3. dreams and goals

• do you want to be happy?
• 10% of happiness comes from circumstances
• Happy people are givers. If you could find a way to give, eat great food and have amazing sex all at the same time, they would never be able to find you.
• enablers are being stolen from by people who will not face their issues
• He doesn't have any problems. I can help you to help him to have some problems.
• healthier with happiness and giving
• learning to say no
• Happy people connect. They have deep connections with a circle of people. They have a place you can go empty and leave full.
• Baby, be my monkey and get into my cage

The monkey story was amazing. He was part of the group that was studying happiness instead of depression. He ran across a study that they did on stress levels in monkeys. They placed a monkey in a cage and completely traumatized it to find a base line for stress. Then they placed another monkey in the cage and the initial monkey's stress level was cut in half. Just having someone go through it with you, makes it seem not so bad. Go grab a monkey and ease the stress in your life.

Henry Cloud's bio shares that he has his PhD. That he has written 20 books. That he is easy-to-understand, gives practical advice tempered with humor and compassion, and it will stick with you long after you have heard him speak. That he has a knack for simplifying complicated issues.

Lunch
Was interesting. They provided sandwiches with an orange and a cookie and a bottle of water. Two of us went for the seven that were there and ended up having to wait for the water because they ran out in the serving line. I guess they didn't think us rebels would be able to finish this mission (or they were really hungry) because they sent out a search party for us. It was all good and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  I am blessed to be able to call this group of women my monkeys.