Thankful: Catalyst Conference

Last week, Ethan and I attended the Catalyst Conference in Dallas with a group from our church. Catalyst is a leadership conference that covers a wide variety of topics, but mostly it is geared toward leaders in the church. The theme was Be Present. We were challenged to turn our phones off and just soak up the information we would receive and to spend time with our friends. All the messages and talks centered on the theme and honestly, it was like being slapped in the face every time because how often are we "too busy" or "so tired" or "totally stressed" and not being present in our lives with our spouses, children, friends, coworkers...Jesus.  

ethan and i on the bus on the way home...super tired!

For my thankful edition this Friday, I would like to share with you the top 3 things I was thankful to hear at the conference.

1. From Judah Smith: The grass is always green where it's watered.
Judah spoke on being present right where God has you. Don't look at someone's grass on the other side of the fence and be jealous because it's greener than yours. It's probably because they are being obedient to 'be present' where God has called them and they are taking care of their grass. Take care of your grass, water it, live in it, and be thankful to be where God has you NOW. I am very thankful to be where we are and I'm so glad God has us right here in Fort Worth. I just need to be better at taking care of our opportunities here.

2. From Bob Goff: Stalkers learn all a person's information...facts, quotes, interesting things. A stalker knows all there is to know about a person, but isn't friends with that person. Don't stalk Jesus. Learn about him because he's your friend and you spend time together. Don't be a stalker.

3. From Andy Stanley: Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.
As a people pleaser, this was a good one for me. You don't have to do everything for everybody. If you do, you're not doing that much good for anyone. But you can't go to the other extreme and not do anything for anybody. Then you definitely aren't helping anyone! But you CAN do for one person, what you wish you could do for everyone. Really invest. Really pour yourself into that one person or one project. That will make a HUGE difference in the one person and also in subsequent people that that person is able to touch because of you. The impact is wider AND deeper. Amazing.

Hope you enjoyed those! Go to the Catalyst website and look around. Listen to some pod casts. Read some blogs. Be challeneged.

Happy Friday! Be thankful today!