Speaking of She Speaks....I'd Love To Go!

This coming June, there is going to be a conference in North Carolina for speakers, bloggers, and those involved in Women's Ministry. The conference is called "She Speaks", and many widely read bloggers will be on hand to lend practical advice and morsels of motivation. Lysa TerKeurst of Proverbs 31 Ministries is hosting a contest, and will award one lucky winner a scholarship to attend the conference. Qualifying is easy.

Or is it??

The "only" thing I have to do is capture in words why I want to win the scholarship.

Words shouldn't be such a tricky feat. After all, isn't that what draws us to blogging? Because we feel we have something to say? We all have a craving to be heard, and also, a sincere desire for those words to matter. We reach out every day in the blogging community to seek fellowship with one another for the sake of encouraging, entertaining, informing, teaching, sharing, confessing, praising....and speaking. Blogging quickly became something more personal for me than just an opportunity to post pictures for my out of town relatives to see. It challenged me to find my true voice, and to hopefully use it for a thimbleful of something that matters.

And I want to do it better.

I want to be relevant. I want to learn what people are looking for when they spend time reading blogs. Why do people visit? How do they long for their cup to be filled? What can I extend as an invitation to relationship that will be a welcome offering??

I want to be relational. I want to connect by being real in my writing. I want to use honesty to gain trust and credibility, and creativity to draw purpose out of the ordinary.

I want to be readable. I want to know how to use words to touch a heart, to tickle a funny bone, to bend a knee in prayer, and to raise a hand in praise.

I think my sphere of influence is often limited by the smallness of my dreams and my lack of commitment to the Lord's purposes for my life. As I seek to hear His voice, my hopes and goals seem to grow in epic proportion! I found I love to write, and the desire of my heart is for God to somehow use that to encourage others. I'd love to be challenged by the "shes" at She Speak to do this better; to finely hone a purpose and direction for my blog and to make it something useful to His service.

I want to go to grow, to learn to bear fruit that might nourish others too. You can learn more about She Speaks here. Thanks for allowing me to share my (not so small) dream! :)