Relevant ‘10

Now that I have been home for a couple of days, I’ve had the chance to really think about all that I learned at Relevant. I never tried to be something I'm not on my blog. I’ve always just been me. I think it was reinforced to me that I was doing one thing right. I did have ideas and aspirations though that maybe weren’t in God’s plans. It’s hard having a smaller blog sometimes. It’s hard having no comments on most of my posts. But, why do I really want comments? Sometimes it is just to know that someone is reading. Other times, my reasons are more selfish. I want to know that my writing was liked by others.

Writing has always been a deeply personal thing for me. When I write something, I don’t really want to hear it read (unless by me and not over and over). Often times, even when I wrote fiction, my writing is very much who I am. So, if people don’t like what I wrote, I equated that with them not liking me.

So, Relevant helped remind me why I am writing. I write for a couple of reasons. First, I write for God. He gave me this gift and I need to use it for Him. Second, I love to write. When I actually do it, it is such a great stress reliever for me. There used to be a time in my life that all I could do was write. I miss those times. We learned that our writing should be a gift – to both ourselves and the reader. So, I’m going to keep writing about my life not because I think I am better than everyone else and have it all together. I’m going to write because God is teaching me so much and I need to talk about it. I’m going to write because God changed all my plans and showed me His. I’m going to write because I am starting to make a conscious effort to see the blessings in my life and take joy in all things. I’m not there yet. This is a life-long process.

The major change that I was convicted of this past weekend is to love my husband and son well. I love reading everyone’s blogs. I love feeling invested in other people’s lives. But, I have two people here that need me more. I can’t push my son away to the other room just because so-and-so updated their blog. I can’t hog the computer and not give my husband a chance to check scores online. The computer is not a member of my family. So, I know this will be hard and I will slip up at times. But, I WANT to change. So, as much as it hurts, I have to cut back. That’s an area where people can pray for me.

Finally, I surprised myself at Relevant by showing others my true personality. This process can take months, if not years usually. I think it is almost a shock to those who believed for so long that I was shy. It’s like “POOF”, this girl won’t stop talking. This girl is crazy!


Kristy and I spent at least 12 hours in the car together and didn’t need any music. We just talked. If she didn’t know it already, she saw my true side halfway into the ride to the conference. When I was younger, we lived out east for 9 years. Our family was all in Ohio, which meant we spent a lot of time on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. There are four tunnels that we had to go through. Three of them had the same first letter as members of my family. My poor dad got the fourth one, just so we didn’t leave him out. Well, once we approached those tunnels, the child in me came out. I believe I exclaimed as we entered my dad’s, “This is my daddy’s tunnel!” Look at some of the first pictures on my camera from the weekend:

Amy's tunnel

My dad's consolation prize

My tunnel!

My mom's tunnel

Then, near the end of the conference, Kristy and I went to Chocolate World with some new friends, Rachel and Leah. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. We were being silly and crazy. Check out Rachel’s blog for our “zombie” pose as we entered the land of chocolate.

Kristy and Leah

A "beautiful" self portrait on the Chocolate Tour Ride

Me and the singing cows

Rachel and Me

I realized that being the real me is so much more fun. I hope to convey that even more on this blog. Relevant ’10 may have been for Christian Women Bloggers, but I really feel like I learned more about myself as a person than the how to grow my blog. And, that was a great thing!