I went to Time Out...

and I loved it!

Have you ever heard of Time out for Women? It is a bunch of musical performers and speakers from our church who get together and put on a conference for Women.

It was Inspiring
Enlightening
Uplifting
Rejuvenating.

I'm so glad I had the chance to go. I could go on forever about all of the things that I relearned. The sweet assurances that my Heavenly Father loves me and is mindful of me and my family and children. That he loves us all and wants us to be happy and successful.

Here is the one thought that struck me the most. Seriously it felt like I literally got hit when I heard this and it changed the way I saw my world in one moment. The speaker was talking about the fruits of Motherhood and how they can take a long time for us to taste the sweetness of the fruit. She talked about it for about 3/4 of her talk and then she said,

"Have you ever wondered if the fruits of Motherhood are not in our children?"

My head snapped up...not in my kids? What then? She then went on to talk about how maybe the most important fruit of being a mother is who we become, not our children.

Here is why I found this to be so life changing for me. It changes the way that I see everything. What if I were to focus more on being patient, loving, selfless, in tune with the spirit...how would that effect my children. It would automatically be teaching my children so much by example and not only that but I would be a more effective teacher! Nagging my children to act the way they should while not focusing on whether or not I'm acting the way I should is horrible parenting.

Not that I didn't know this. Of course I try to be a good and patient Mom and to be the best I can be. But the WHY behind it changes everything for me. I use to be doing it because I love them and because it will be good for my kids, it was an outward motion. For example I would work on being patient in the situation, not on just being a patient person from the inside out in every situation. My motivation was everyone else...as was my focus. How are my kids doing? Then adjusting my Mothering to fit.

But to see the trials and joys of Motherhood as the river that is smoothing the edges of my rough stone changes the way I feel about my call as a Mother. There seems to be more purpose in it. I cant be focusing on everyone else and their progression. My progression now seems to be so much more vital to the progression of my children.

I don't feel like I'm expressing myself well. These are not new things but the whole shift in my perspective was what was rocked me. Somewhere a long the way I have lost myself in my Mothering. I was working so hard on developing good children that I was not taking the time to develop myself through those same experiences. It helped me put the "I" back into Motherhood and not only back into it, but in the right perspective.

I hope that in 20 years I will not only be able to say that I'm proud of who my children have become, but that I'm also proud of who I have become BECAUSE of being their Mom.

What a blessing this conference was.

Life changing.

I will be going next year for sure. Its in Vegas...anyone want to meet me there.
Tickets are on Presale now.