This past week-end we went to hear Collin & Nancy Campbell speak at an Above Rubies family seminar near our home. We were going to go Fri. and Sat. and stay with friends near there but that didn't work out so we just went Sat. which worked well. It was a bit of a challenge having all 6 kids 8 and under there most of the time. (Our friends did take the older 2 for the afternoon session) I missed out on quite a bit of the afternoon session while taking care of the older kids. I haven't done enough training for my kids to sit quietly and listen but then again, how many 2yo boys can sit for hours on ends at a conference?

Anyways, my favorite part was when we broke into groups with the women with Nancy and the men with Collin. Nancy shared about the 8 P's of powerful parenting. The first P was parenting purposefully. She talked about how God gave his plans for families and their roles and purpose in the first chapters of Genesis. The thing I got the most out of from this was when she talked about how Eve was created from the rib of man. God could have just created Eve from the dust just like all the other animals, but instead he created us out of man. He created us not to be a separate creation, but to be one.

This wasn't anything new to me, but the way she expressed it gave me the renewed desire to serve my husband and look for how I can better see us as a unified couple, EVEN if he is doing things the way I would want him to or being the way I want him to be. It's easy to do my own things and go our own ways at times. It's easy to judge each other. But more than anything, I need to lift him up, encourage him, pray for him and love him no matter what!

I won't go into the rest of the notes I have on the conference as I don't have time right now. I did really enjoy meeting other like-minded people and enjoyed meeting the Campbells. I pray the Lord blesses them in their ministry!