six words

So I went to the Living Proof Live Conference in Portland this weekend. We were there Friday night and Saturday morning. If you don't already know it, Beth Moore is an amazing teacher. I've done three of her studies, two with the DVD lessons and read a couple of her books. They are always so good. I've been to Women of Faith three times. I've been to women's retreats. But this conference was just awesome.

Her three sessions came from the book of Galatians and was based on the premise of six words. It was something her daughter had read about on a blog and mentioned it on the Living Proof blog. All of her outline points were six words long. And we had a homework assignment Friday night to sum up our lives as we saw it Friday night at 6:00 in six words. She gave some examples to help us get started. Some were funny. Some sad. Some especially poignant.

• "He loves me. Wish I could."
• "Brother's May wedding: need affordable liposuction."
• "Life is messy. Pass the mop."
• "He will finish what He started."
• "His love is better than life."
• "Must have coffee to stay awake."
• "Wife no longer. Husband with Jesus."
• "Traumatized caterpillar peeking out of cocoon."

On Saturday, Beth walked around with a microphone and there were several women who shared.

• One young mom shared, "Cooking. Cleaning. Laundry. Dishes. Breathe. Repeat." ~ That one got a good laugh from the crowd.
• Then a single mom with a heart condition raising three small boys made everybody bawl. Hers started out to be "I am dying. Take me home." But she had felt such a change inside that she rewrote her six words that morning. "I am Yours. Take me anywhere."

I actually wrote a couple different six word summations because I was having a hard time narrowing it down. But I'll share this one because it had extra special meaning to me.

• "Love my husband. Miss my family."

At lunch on Friday I got a text from my sister that said, "Call me as soon as you get this." Those are the sorts of things you'd rather do without. There's always apprehension - is it going to be something scary and serious, or does she have a hysterical kid story to tell? It ended up being the not-so-good-kind-of-news. I found out my dad was in ICU. . . 2,000 miles away.

He was taken to the emergency room by ambulance Friday morning. At first they thought it was a prescription reaction of his cumadin to some antibiotics he had started taking a few days earlier. They did pretty much every test known to mankind, ruled out heart problems, decided it wasn't a drug reaction after all, and eventually determined he had a bleeding ulcer. My sister described seeing him in the hospital Friday afternoon like this, "His lips were totally white, Wendy. Not gray. White. I couldn't tell where his beard ended and his lips started." He lost a lot of blood and received lots of blood and platelets in return. They were able to do a scope and cauterize the ulcer which has stopped the bleeding. He is doing much, much better today. He has all his color back and is regaining his strength. His blood levels still aren't where they need to be, coming up, but still a little low, so he's still hanging out at the hospital, but he was to be moved out of ICU as soon as a bed opened up.

Several of you faithful blog readers-o-mine were aware of the situation and were praying. Thank you from me and my family. I know that God wanted me at that conference this weekend. I was given a ticket by a sweet lady at church who couldn't go. God worked it out so I wouldn't be sitting at home fretting and worrying the whole time. My mind could be engaged in something else. And let me tell ya, it was good! If Beth Moore is ever in your area,

Buy. Yourself. A. Cotton. Pickin'. Ticket.