This Monday night is the GNO (Girls Night Out - for those of you who may not be up on the lingo :) )
How did that happen?
It feels like AWAKEN 2011 just ended. But so much has happened since then. We are still hearing stories of people that were truly awakened during that wonderful weekend that we spent together. Awakened to their idenity as a child of God. Awakened to FREEDOM! Awakened to dreams that had been asleep for a long time...too long! Awakened to the need to connect with other women of like dreams and passions. These are the stories that keep us going.
The other reality that I can't ignore is that there are also those of us that left the conference fired up and ready to take on the world only to have the winds of life blow intensely threatening to put out the flame that was lit. Some didn't even make it through the conference before something was threatening to dampen their light. One weekend is just not enough to fit everything in which is why I am so grateful for our Girls Nights Out. We can build on what we began. We can continue the conversation.
At AWAKEN I talked about how we need to be like those trick candles that you put on a birthday cake that just refuse to go out. Just like those candles have a substance called magnesium built inside them to cause them to continually reignite we must have faith built inside of us to help us to keep shining! Faith is our substance. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen - Hebrews 11:1. So even when we don't see with our natural eye what can be - faith keeps us moving in the right direction.
My heart is full with a message to encourage those that are struggling to keep their flame blazing as well as those that are blazing a new trail. Even though we would all love to believe that we can SHINE without so much as flickering or dimming just a little at times we all know that is not the world we live in.
So the question that we touched on at AWAKEN is still out there...how do we keep shining when there is so much out there that threatens to extinguish our flame? On Monday night we are going to talk about FANNING THE FLAME!
Don't miss the opportunity to be encouraged. We need each other!
Lots of Love,
Tracey
