It’s only 9 days until She Speaks, and I want to urge you to start praying for The One Thing.

The first year I attended, I was an absolute WRECK before the conference.  I had literally made myself sick by the time I arrived.  I let myself become too focused on preparing in my own strength, and I had no idea that God would use the weekend in such an enormous way in my life.

That year Lysa told a story in one of her messages that changed my life forever.  In the story there was a man who was sitting beside a road watching people walk by.  He began to notice a group of workers transporting bricks and became curious about their project.  After watching for a while, he stopped a worker and asked him, “What are you doing?”  The man responded, “I’m carrying bricks” and continued trudging along.

Soon a second worker approached.  The man watching beside the road, stopped the worker and asked, “What are you doing?”  The worker replied, “I’m building a building” and continued on his way.

The observer scratched his head in confusion and then asked a third worker, “What are you doing?” as he passed.  The last worker stopped, looked the man full in the eye and with his face full of joy answered, “I’m building a kingdom.”

That story pierced my heart as I recognized myself in the brick-carrying first worker.  I had approached each new speaking opportunity as my “last”.  I was afraid to think about a higher calling, so I trudged along full of fear.

That year, God clearly spoke The One Thing to my heart.  I was to lift my eyes, open my hands and unleash my heart to be a Kingdom builder.

My tip this week is similar to last week’s.  This conference can be overwhelming if you allow every piece of information to be your One Thing.  One by one the things you learn will become a weight that seems too heavy to carry.  But if you will begin to pray and ask God for The One Thing that He wants you to carry home that transforms your life, He will be faithful.  All the other information will then fall into its proper place and perspective.

Today start praying for Your One Thing.

This is the last post that I’ll be doing before She Speaks.  I absolutely can’t wait to see you there!  Please come back on August 2 or subscribe today in the subscription area of our sidebar so that you don’t miss a thing.

I love a women’s conference!  There’s nothing quite like being with a group of friends, learning something new and having time just to soak it all in.

As I see it, there’s only one down side to a conference; it’s usually just too much information to process.  The saying “like drinking water from a fire hose” is completely applicable.

She Speaks definitely falls in this category, so how can you come away without getting a case of overload shutdown?  You know what I mean.  It’s that phenomenon when you can’t even begin to think of where to start, so you just never get started at all.  It’s easy to leave with big dreams and high hopes and then sink into discouragement when the rush of the weekend is over.  Pursuing the dream starts to look too complicated or too far away.

Here’s a simple, practical tip to help avoid this pitfall.  Make an Action Item List during the conference.  In each breakout session, listen for 1 or 2 actions that you want to take based on what you’ve learned.  On a separate piece of paper, compile these actions into a list.

Once you get home, prayerfully narrow the list if you need to and prioritize the items.  Then you can tackle one action at a time.  (And I’m a girl who LOVES to check things off a list.  Don’t forget the checks!)  Dreams come true one step at a time.