Cast of Characters

One of the women that spoke this past weekend at the Extraordinary Women Conference was Karen Kingsbury, a Christian author. Her novels encompass family life, the struggles of everyday, the "ups and downs" of major/minor life happenings and she also tackles many current event topics. One of her most recent being the tragedies of 9/11. If you have not read any of her books, I would encourage you to do so!

Karen Kingsbury spoke on "how to write your life story." My ears perked because I enjoy writing but as she continued to speak I realized that writing your life story meant how to love your life, live your life, and be content with the life that God has given you. Her presentation evoked many emotions from laughter (her husband is a die hard Ohio State fan while she cheers for the University "up North"), and of course tears (she spoke on how her brother finally accepted The Lord and not 7 days later he passed away from an aneurysm). But what I felt the most relevant part of her speech for me, at this time of my life, were the "three things that make up your life story."

She stated, "to write a good life story, you must have these three parts..."

1. A Cast of characters...To learn to love the cast of characters that God has given you. We are called to never give up on them... That is when she told of her brother who rejected Jesus. I believe she said that it was 7 years that she prayed for him, challenged him, and one day he found a CD of Caedmon's Call(?) and one of the songs softened his heart and he accepted Jesus. She continued to love her brother, she never gave up on him. She saw him come to The Lord and will see him again one day in heaven.

2. She reminded us that there would always be an antagonist in our life story. That antagonist is the Devil.
1 Peter 5:8 says Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Really, that speaks for itself. The Devil will show up in your moment of weakness. He will devour, if we let him...but the good news is,

3. WE HAVE A HERO...JESUS CHRIST
When you love The Lord there is always a Happy Ending. He is the most important character in our life story. With Jesus, "There is sunshine just beyond the clouds!"
John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

When I made plans to go to the conference a group of my friends all thought that they would be able to attend. As the event got closer I found myself having to go to it alone. The last event like this that I went to by myself was the Renewing the Heart retreat in Nashville TN, where my heart was moved to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I knew that my heart had to be right to attend this conference so I kept asking that The Holy Spirit would allow me to have an open heart, an open mind and be willing to accept challenges from the speakers. My heart and mind accepted the challenge and HE saw to it that each speaker had something to say to me!

I would like to share more of the conference tomorrow.

Umm...Sally on Sports returns...
*Too bad for the Buckeyes. Not enough offense. Too many mistakes. Still proud of the team that Tressel is building.

*Will have to wait for tomorrow to see if the Phillies can hold on to win the World Series. I was enjoying the game last night when the foul weather hit Philadelphia. Today on ESPN radio, Scott VanPelt said that it was snowing there today and the game would have to be postponed until tomorrow. 6th inning. Game tied at 2. It'll be interesting to see. Poor Bud Selig can't get a break when it comes to the All-Star game and now the Series.

*Seems as if my High School Alma Mater, The Solon Comets, have not made it to the high school football tournament. Not too important to you but to Solon? Wow! This is the first time in 11 years that the Comets will not see any tournament play. The powerhouse that is Solon will have to also wait another year, just like my Indians, Browns...