Connections in Charlotte

I just checked the internet for flights to Charlotte, NC. The cheapest one is just over $300.00. If I want a no-connections flight, it would be closer to $500.00. Suddenly there it was... the angle for my blog post for the She Speaks Conference scholarship entry. (Go to Lysa Tyerkurst's post for more information!) Connections! Of course I want connections. That's why I want to go to the She Speaks Conference in the first place!
Proverbs 31 Ministries' She Speaks Conference offers connections:

Connections with God and His calling in your life.
Connections with kind-hearted professionals with a desire to teach their trade.
Connections with other writers/speakers/leaders.
Connections with publishers.

My morning ritual involves opening three windows on my computer while waiting for the coffee to brew. My blog, FaceBook, and e-mail. My husband, in jest, accuses me of being addicted to the computer. He is only partly right. I am addicted to connections. As a stay at home mom, most of my connections (at least with grown ups) just happen to be found on the computer.
I love connecting with people. I love the fellowship with other Christians. I love meeting people who run in different circles than myself, learning about them and their beliefs, and showing them my connection to Jesus. I love connecting with God through prayer and reading His Word.
I also love to write. I used to say “I live to write.” It used to be that unless I wrote about something it was not real to me. I still have my notebook from my 9th grade Language Arts class where I sat across from a really cute boy. One day I kept accidentally making eye contact with him. Okay, I was staring at him and he was catching me at it! I could feel my face growing warmer and redder. I needed to vent. Having no friends in that class, I started a conversation within my notebook, “Eek! He just looked at me.” “Don't look at him!” “Whoa! He looked at me again!” This is an embarrassingly silly example, but that moment is still etched in my memory. Because I wrote about it.
I have a suitcase filled with letters I never mailed. My personality, my beliefs, my first boyfriends, my life was continually expressed through ink on paper. Then my life changed. I gave myself to Christ. I became a different person. I stopped writing.
There are several possible reasons why:

-My confidence took a nose dive.
-As a new Christian I felt I had little or nothing to offer.
-My freshest writing in the past was, well, fresh. And not like lilacs in the spring. More like the birds and the bees in the spring. Not explicit but not Christ-edifying, either.
-“The writer's life is a lonely life.” I am not sure if I am quoting my mother or my creative writing professor. Probably both.

I can no longer, however, resist the urge to write. I have been recognizing it as encouraging whispers from my Father in Heaven. I have started to re-find my voice through listening to His voice. The She Speaks Conference might just be what is needed for a “revival in my calling.”
Do you feel the same pull? Go to the She Speaks Conference website and find out that this conference could be just what YOU need!