What I Gleaned from Influence

I am influential.
Really, I am.
I have a child who spent his whole day hitting people and chucking rocks at his friends. (I try to explain to him that this is neither a good method for gaining nor keeping friends. I digress.)
I am the number one influence in said child's life. He is with me when I lie down and when I rise. Where can I flee from his presence? (Bath tub. But only sometimes.) He mostly follows me.
God bless him; I have influence.

I have Internet access.
That's a good thing.
I almost only hear women people talking about how we were so much better off during the good old days when people weren't attached to their smart phones. People were more present. (Probably just chose a different distraction, but that's a-whole-nother story.)
I hear people talking about how we know too much about everybody's business, and how the Internet makes life way creepy.
I hear people who are down on the Internet.
And I get it.
Porn.
Predators.
Catfishing.
The evil is prevalent and loud.
But so is the good.
During my first two years of motherhood, I was pretty much a loner. (Anybody relate?)
I was home all day (longing to bathe): just me, my baby, and the Internet.
I was also accustomed to having a large pool of women from which I could call someone to hang out, someone to share wisdom, someone to come over and stare at me. (Did I mention that I moved from "home" two months post-baby?)
The Internet discipled me in all things life and motherhood those two years. I read blogs like this one and this one and this one.
I found myself thanking God for the Internet.
I wasn't alone.
Sisters raised their voice to tell me so.

I have a voice.
Ain't it the truth?
If my sister(s) can be an encouragement, so can I.
At the Influence Conference, I encountered the three sweet sisters linked directly above.
I met them and they blessed my heart by encouraging me to write.
To raise my voice that there might be another one speaking out for truth & love.
They encouraged me to connect, to empower, and to be an example for the next generation.
I pray that my blog does all of these things. Well.

I want to publicly say thank you to those who worked so hard to put on a marvelous conference.
I believe your efforts make an eternal difference.

I also need to say an above-and-beyond thank you to Annie Downs. You don't know me, but I believe in your message. I think you may have wrecked me for ever having an I-get-online-sometimes life. Thank you.

Last, last thing. It was so good to worship with normal moms and dads. I know that there were also single gals & married people with no kids, but there was just something special about a room full of passionately-going-for-it worshipers + knowing that over half of these worshipers have little ones at home (or on their hip). I was so blessed by this thought. I find that corporate worship only gets sweeter as I have more to thank God for, the more that He walks with me. I sensed this in the room. The LORD has done great things for us (carried us through hard things), and we are filled with joy!