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!

I Heart Coffee!

Ethan and I like coffee.

I mean, really really really like coffee.

While Ethan was at the Catalyst conference in Dallas, he was able to try Project 7 coffee. They had a booth set up and were giving out free cups of coffee all during the conference. Ethan was so happy about that! The coffee was tasty, so he kept going back. Then he found out that Project 7 actually supports causes with the purchase of their products, like coffee. Ethan brought several canisters home. And it is delicious!

For every canister of coffee you buy, you support a cause. For example, the 7 Blend coffee (our favorite) provides clean water for one year for one person for each canister.

Pretty cool, right?

So we decided that we like the coffee so much and we believe in what they do that we decided to continue buying from Project 7. We are now members of the coffee club where we get 2 canisters of 7 Blend sent to our door every month. This year we will have had great coffee and provided clean water for 24 people for a full year. That's amazing! But they have 6 other causes they support, too!

I say all this not to make us look awesome because we are not. Project 7 is! We're thankful for companies like this and we are happy to support them. Check them out! And if you want to try some coffee....come over and we'll brew you a cup to try!