I had the opportunity to spend last week down at Clarks Summit University for their Global Ministry Conference and I’m so thankful I took the time to go. It was wonderful to get out of the daily grind of being a business owner, hang out with old friends, make new friends, and learn from the speakers. 

The theme of this year’s conference was “Missio-preanuer, so it immediately caught my attention as several of the speakers were business men & women who were going to be sharing how to make the business world your mission field. 

I went into the conference having my thoughts of what I was going to hear and how it was going to give me those ideas of how to help people & do big things. I’m a planner so way too often, I create a mental agenda of how things are going to go.  And I walked away from the conference with God doing very different things in my heart. He thankfully didn’t listen & follow my list of what was going to happen, but instead was working on the little things in my heart. It makes me smile thinking about how God cares so much about the little things & how He shows up time & time again. At the end of the week, when I was asked “What are you taking away from the conference?”, I felt a bit silly in admitting it because it seems so “common sense” and not related to my initial priority of “how to do big things”. I was encouraged by the friend who was asking that isn’t missions at the root of it, common sense? It’s not about these big things, it’s about those little steps, those little decisions that will in turn grow into what God wants it to be. 

Here’s my three biggest take aways from last week, that can be applied to any area of your life: 

1. We need to care more about the outcome, instead of just our good intentions. 

Delana Durough said in her closing presentation “We didn’t care as much about the outcome, as much as we cared about our intentions”. This was one of those “Ok God, I see what you’re trying to tell me moments”. So often I don’t think past that my intentions are good and I don’t think about how the outcome is going to affect who I’m trying to help. Did I even ask that person about what would be helpful or just take the few minutes to stop and pray about it? I focus on the fact that my intentions are good and that’s all that matters. Even something that was meant to be good & helpful, ends up hurting more than helping. 

We use it as a cop out “Well I meant well” and yes, God does care about our heart & our intentions… But the outcomes do matter. 

2. Wanna be great? Stop Trying. Keep Saying God is Great! 

Pretty simple right? 

3. Your attitude determines your approach to life and work. 

The past two months have been a time of growing for me. At the beginning of December, I found myself burnt out, tired, and miserable when it came to work. I took steps back from many things and just let myself rest. The rest was great but in the resting, my attitude toward work went downhill. I have struggled to get my normal attitude loving my work back and it’s been confusing for me. This little quote, that again is so common sense, spoke right to my heart as I was sitting there. We control our attitudes. It’s not about feelings, it’s about adjusting our attitude. 

As I sit here at my desk, on a Monday afternoon,  I feel renewed and ready for what lays ahead. I have the links to the Youtube videos of the conference bookmarked because I know I’m going to want to re-listen. Click here to listen for yourself, I promise, it will be worth your time!  

Here’s a couple photos of my time on campus last week, loved being back at one of my favorite places! It was one of those weeks where I forgot to get my phone out to take pictures.