“I join the contributing authors in believing that every time your faith clashes with the reality of our broken planet, it can become an inciting incident. And I hope and pray with them that something in their stories to come will help you allow these incidents to incite good in your life, to propel the plot of your life forward to greatness.” –Sarah Cunningham, introduction to Inciting Incidents

I was asked by the folks at Moody Publishers to review an advance copy of the recently released book Inciting Incidents. It’s a book of six stories of creatives pulled together to illustrate how turning points in each person’s life can reflect God’s glory in the way He intended.

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This past weekend was my first time at Women of Faith. What an awesome conference! From what I’ve heard, it was a lot different this year than in the past. I plan to attend every year going forward, and bring Rooney when she gets older.

Just being in the same place as all those women, raising our hands and singing to our God…it’s hard to believe heaven will be even more amazing.

Here are my speaker recaps:

• Ken Davis
• Sheila Walsh
• Liz Curtis Higgs
• Christine Caine
• Angie Smith
• Ann Voskamp

Did you go to WOF this year?

I’ve heard Christine Caine speak before, at the Global Leadership Summit this year and a couple years ago. She is awesome. Very bold and energetic.

The Australian accent doesn’t hurt, either.

My notes:

• We often bring our hurts from yesterday into today, because we can’t let go. By not moving on, we say, “Jesus, what you did was not enough.”

• We don’t step into the fullness of God because we say we’ll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. We must do it today.

Ann Voskamp was one of the speakers I was most looking forward to. I know who she is because my friend recently gave me her book, One Thousand Gifts. She’s a Canadian farmer’s wife, mother of six and best-selling author. Can you imagine?

Here’s what I took in:

• SLOW DOWN. Life is not an emergency.

• A friend once dared her to write down 1,000 gifts. She did it, and is still doing it. She’s currently in the 4,000s. She’s now passing on that dare to us – to write down 1,000 ways God loves us. It will change your life when you give thanks to God.

This was my favorite talk, which explains why I only have one note written down and BUY with an arrow pointing to a picture of her new book, What Women Fear.

Goodness, Angie Smith is a beautiful woman of God.

Here’s what I remember from her moving talk:

• God taught her through motherhood that she is NOT in control.

• Angie has four daughters on earth, and two in heaven. She told a hilarious story about having twins who are perfect little angels and then a very spirited daughter next who will either change the world or end up in prison. One of her babies was a miscarriage, and the other died in her arms a couple hours after she was born. I was sobbing through her story. But she says God was with her in the deep darkness.