Beignets, leg wrestling, and Beth Moore...just what the good Doctor ordered

To say that last week was a stressful week, would be an understatement. I don't want to go into much detail other than to say that I was made aware of a situation that was outside of my control, but required my immediate attention. It will definitely go into the record books as one of the most difficult ministry challenges I have had to address to date. Which makes it all the sweeter that I had a weekend trip planned with my daughter and one of her friends to attend the Beth Moore/Living Proof event in New Orleans. Talk about perfect timing.

God knew I would need a vacation after last week and I am convinced that He divinely placed the weekend on my calendar. He knew it would lift my heart to see my daughter, who has been 800+ miles away from home attending college. He knew that after an exhausting week of putting out fires (make that bonfires), my tank was on empty and I needed to be the one sitting in the audience being fed rather than up on the platform. He knew that Beth's message would hit the target and leave me feeling good about some areas of my life and prayerful about a few others. He knew that I needed to laugh, so He sent me Travis Cottrell to even the score in an ongoing practical joke tournament we began over a decade ago. After this weekend, Travis is currently winning. He jumped out of no where and scared me half to death when I was backstage, causing me to literally fall to the floor in a crumpled heap. But, I already have a retaliation plan underway and he should be afraid. Very afraid.

We had an amazing time and it will easily go down in the record books as one of the most memorable memories we have shared. My daughter has grown up going to my events, so this was really the first time we have attended an event together as .... attendees. I emailed Beth last week to tell her that I was bringing Paige and one of her friends to the event and I mentioned that they had chosen the event over their sorority formal. The girls were wide-eyed over our front row seats (thank you, LifeWay!), but nothing could prepare them for Beth coming down off the platform and recognizing them in front of an arena full of women. It touched this mama's heart to see what it meant to the girls.

The event ended at noon on Saturday, but we stayed another day to play and have fun. We shopped on Magazine Street, ate beignets for dinner, had room-service one morning, ate at Mother's Restaurant, and took a stroll down Bourban Street. And yeah, our Bourban Street experience is probably a whole post in and of itself! Beginning with some grad school guys who attemped to hit on them and somehow never made the connection that I was the on-call MOTHER. Whatever! And for the record, the limo wasn't ours...we were just pretending. :)

But no mother/daughter trip would be complete without a leg wrestling tournament. I think I learned the art of leg wrestling at a weekend sleepover in my middle school years and have since passed down the tradition to my daughter. Let the record state that I am currently undefeated, although she did come awfully close to flipping me this past weekend. I have also taught my daughter how to do "spider rolls" and should we ever find ourselves on a grassy hill with a camera-bearing witness to document the moment, I will be happy to post pictures for your entertainment pleasure.


















Thank you, Lord for a much-needed weekend.