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I had the amazing opportunity to spend the weekend with 1,100 other women at an event called
Time Out For Women, or TOFW in Denver. It is sponsored by Deseret Book and they bring in different presenters to teach us, share their talents, inspire, motivitate, and encourage women.
I first contacted my "Denver girls" about this a few months ago about attending the event together and counted down the days. Unfortunately for Matt, it was also opening day for duck hunting season but he made sure that my plans did not change. He is pretty awesome!
Matt and Ella rode down with me on Friday morning so he could pick up his new "commuter" car near Denver. Here is the new member of the family.
We went our separate ways and my "girls only" weekend started! First stop, Erica's house for a hair appointment! She colored my hair while Kris sat in the next chair and we talked and talked and talked. Then...it was off to the most amazing jewelry store, Charming Charlie.
Seriously.
The three of us had a great time, made a lot of noise, tried on all kinds of silly stuff. I might have left the store with a large bag to hold my purchases...including the delicious
teal ruffled purse.
Divine.
Then it was time to meet up with the rest of the gals and head to TOFW.
After a some Qdoba for dinner we were all set!
The theme for TOFW was:
Choose To BECOME
Discover your Possibilities.
"ALL THINGS are possible to HIM that BELIEVETH"
~Mark 9:23
We were able to hear many musical performances from Dallyn Vail Bayles and Hilary Weeks.
I am pretty sure I was brought to tears with every song they sang. Dallyn was so amazing.
I took pages and pages of notes and I have been going over them this week trying to really take in what I learned so that I can apply it to my life. This theme was something that really spoke to ME and I needed to hear what was being taught.
I want to share some (okay...most) of the powerful statements that were shared during the two days.
- Look into the heart of others to see what God sees
- If you only knew how GOOD and WONDERFUL you really are
- Be the answer to someone else's prayer
- Act upon inspiration
- Bring the Lord into your life by the promise of prayer
- CHOOSE ONE THING THAT WILL GET YOU CLOSER TO THE WOMAN YOU WERE MEANT TO BE
- What are you becoming from your experiences?
Doctrine and Covenants 84:88
88 And who so receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.
- Are you living in a way to invite the Lord to be on your right and your left?
- Trust in the Lord through prayer
- We can give our life to our Heavenly Father by serving others
- "if we are complaining about life we are only thinking of ourselves
- we have been given each other to bless each other's lives
- Forgive others so we can be forgiven
- have a heart of forgiveness
- Hold fast to the iron rod and endure to the end
- CHOOSE TO BECOME SOMETHING BETTER
- How you respond and react to conditions determines your happiness
- Listen...Obey...DO!
- Develop the habit of having a thick skin
- have a habit of happiness
- Do your children the honor of expecting hard things from them
- have the stability of a few well chosen traditions
- If you want to be happy, get in the habit of treating yourself like a real person
- Heavenly Father expects us to be the women we ARE
- work very hard at finding the GOOD in our children's actions
- Have the big picture! You are on the winning team so don't quit the team!
- Don't just enjoy happiness, produce it!
- We can have a bad day but have a good life! ~Elder Maxwell
- We weren't sent down here to be comfortable, but to be challenged
- God wants what is best for us
- It will come out all right in the end
- Happiness should be in your face, it is a decision
- Keep the faith, be an optimist
- In the scriptures it says, "and it came to pass"...not "it came to stay" (I loved that one)
- Extraordinary moments can happen on ordinary days
- We can accomplish what we think about! ~Grant Von Harrison
- recognize that negative thoughts WILL bring you down
- Choose to celebrate the positive
- The Lord will be as much a part of our lives as we let Him
- we are valiant women saved for the latter days capable of greatness
- we are faithful women~commit to the Lord
- we are creative women of talent
- learn to love through meekness
- See who the Lord wants us to become
- be Unique, we are one of a kind
- we each have our own mission to perform~ask what our mission is and move forward
- Be true to who you are no matter where you are
- How and why do we choose to write the name of the Lord on our hearts?
- We need to be ALL TOGETHER committed to the Lord
- Learn to serve the Lord through humility ~Acts 20
- The Lord is with us, He knows ME, let Him be in our hearts.
- We are worth it!
Kris, Moi, Erica
There is so much that I learned and even more that spoke to my heart that I didn't write down but that I will always remember. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go and not only spend time with my amazing friends but also to be taught and spiritually fed! It was also fun to see 10 ladies from my ward in Sidney who came down together!!
Kris wasn't able to come on Saturday, Erica and I missed you!!
Erica and I with my new friend Lyndsey
We finished off the day with a little more shopping, dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then
it was time to head home.
I am rejuvenated, excited and more optimistic about life! I really will try to see all the good in my days and not to take myself so seriously. To allow myself to have those bad moments without letting them turn into bad days! Does that make sense? If I can apply what I learned I CAN become a better wife, mommy, friend, sister and daughter! Think of your eternal potential and BECOME the woman you were meant to be!I am worth it and so are you!
6 comments:
It was such a wonderful time- thanks so much for making the effort to come. You said a girls weekend every 8 weeks right? ;) You won't the spiritual all those times, but shopping, eating and hair I can do. :) It was awesome!!!
What a great message! Imagine what the world would be like if all women stepped up to become what God intends for us to be. So powerful! Glad you were able to go and thanks for sharing your notes. :)
Good for you to take the time to write down your notes here so you will always have them. It was such an inspiring conference! I'm so grateful to have attended and like you, I felt so uplifted and edified and encouraged that I can really do this thing called life. We missed you with the ward gals, but I'm so glad you got to hang out and have so much fun with your Denver girlfriends.
Great post and thoughts Ali. Thank you for sharing. It is always great to have a spiritual uplift and perspective.
AAAHHHH I made your blog post. It was lots of fun getting to know you a little bit. I am thankful that I was able to be apart of the weekend.
Ali, thanks for sharing a little bit of your weekend. I love TOFW, it is so inspiring and so worth the time and effort. You are amazing and look so great in your cute outfits and great hair. I am so jealous that Dad gets to spend time with you.... I'll make the trip out soon. Love you!
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