Laughed and Cried and Laughed 'Til I Cried: Day 2 MOPS Convention

There were moments in our amazing adventure that is MOPS convention when I had chills.  There were moments when I was fumbling for a tissue and moments when I laughed 'til my face hurt.  

As Travis Cottrell led us in the opening and had a couple thousand women singing "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him." I got goosebumps.  Seriously.  It was that beautiful.  It reminded me of the lyric in "The Little Drummer Boy", everyone in that room was giving their best for Christ and all around me were beautiful, passionate voices joined together in praise.  Wow!  Lots of women (and a few men, who let them in?! joking!) all worshiping God is a powerful thing, y'all! (I just love "y'all" and I am in Tennessee.)

You know what I LOVE about MOPS?  It is relevant to me.  Me with 6 kids ages almost (gasp) 17 all the way down to almost a (sob) year! 

Shelly Radic spoke about gifts, and in doing so told a story of an ill-fated harmonica and her own teenage son and I was relieved to hear her story because if her teen can act well, as the Husband would say, "his age", then it is okay for mine to do so too.   Then we saw a video of  Kendall Parkhurst's 3 yo and 9 mo son's  delight in a 99 cent whoopie cushion. That, too, is my life.  Oh, the humor of boys. :)

In a nutshell, THAT is why I love MOPS.  I have a lot of answers  (most of which begin with, "Every child is different...") but sometimes I just need to know that I am not alone.  Because of MOPS, no woman has to mother alone. 

And not only that, we learned that is is Biblical to say, "My, your butt is miniscule."  What woman does not need to hear that?  Lisa Harper had us laughing until our cheaks hurt but also gave us food for thought and shared with us that when we see God clearly, we can live out our gifts boldly.  There were points, too when I had tears rolling down my cheeks.  "God doesn't just notice you, He gazes at you..He delights in you."  "Jesus is not just on our team he moves heaven and earth for us!"  We had the opportunity to meet her and she signed books for us.

In other sessions, I learned more about public speaking and about MOMSnext. We laughed and talked some more.  And walked and walked. Got lots of freebies at the resource fair

And then came General Session number 2. 

We laughed at the the humor of John Banyan.  He finally explained a great mystery of life,  God created woman from man's rib and that was the rib men used to read minds!  A ha!  Now I know why the Husband cannot read my mind.  After that, the floor was literally rocking with the energetic, high powered performance of Mandisa!  Awesome and inspiring! 

After a long, inspiring and passion-filled day, we enjoyed a leisurely dinner, laughed and talked some more.  We collapsed into bed and are ready for another day of praising and growing and learning  to be Bold, Loving and Sensible leaders as well as mothers, not just in MOPS but in the world at large.

-Peace