Jesus Girls....

Last weekend I had the awesome pleasure of attending our church's womens conference.  The only thing that made that better was that my sweet mama came for the weekend and went with me.  A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!  It was just what my soul needed.  Lysa  Terkeurst was our guest speaker and if you aren't familiar with her she is worth your time.  You can find daily devotions and  encouragement from her at her blog  lysaturkeurst.com or at Proverbs 31 Ministry, where she is the president. You can find them at proverbs31.org.  She had an amazing testimony, one that I never would have assumed but one that was very powerful.  She made a great point that God doesn't always make us "comfortable" but he makes us "comfort able", reach out to others, share your experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly, you never know when it could touch someone's heart!  Our past doesn't make us who we are, it doesn't define us!  It is not a secret that I was married before I married Patrick, it seems like another life ago.  It was a long time ago and it is rarely spoke of anymore, which honestly is okay with me.  However for whatever reason the Lord has been resurfacing some of my past lately.  What I went through was tough, I was young and it very likely would have qualified us for an episode of Jerry Springer, no joke.  I guess I don't "tell the stories" anymore for a lot of reasons, I got sick of talking about them, they were almost unbelievable, etc... etc.... Let me clarify what I meant when I said the Lord has been resurfacing them.  In the last month or so I have been thinking about how I have always said that if what I went through could help one person, if the Lord could use me to help just one person than it was all worth it, otherwise it was all in vain to me.  I use to use my story to reach people, specifically young women in very troubled relationships, I was proof that God delivers and protects because on more than one occasion my Lord WAS MY protector!  So why have I stopped sharing?  Shame? Embarrassment?  I know that people tend to forget about the fact that I was once before married so why bring it up and remind them?  A lot of people in my life now probably don't know and probably don't care but to me it has become something that I want to keep a secret but the reality is that is exactly what  I don't want to do.  I do not want to keep it a secret.  I don't want to confess to every person I come in contact with "hey I am divorced and remarried" but I am no longer going to sweep it under the rug, pretend it never happened.  I felt God dealing with me for whatever reason and yesterday I got an email from a girl that I only know from church, super sweet girl but I don't know her that well.  Anyway she shared with me that we were in a Bible Study together years ago, probably early 2005 and she was thanking me for my transparency, for being open about my experiences and what I had been through.  Her email meant so much to me, it made me cry and say "Thank you Lord for speaking to me through Candace"!  There may be some girl right now who is terrified as I was and has no idea which direction to run and I may could share with her what God did for me!  Why wouldn't I want to do that!


Lysa said "Rise and GO tell your story!!! What satan meant to harm you, God has MADE GOOD"


And all my Jesus girls said "AMEN"! :)


"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jer 29:11

Me, Lysa and Mama at the conference