Leadership Conference

Hey ya'll!
So......... This past week, I got to go to Missouri and Kansas! I went to Kansas to visit some family and then my mom and I drove to Missouri for a leadership conference. I feel so blessed for the opportunity I had to go and fellowship with other young leaders/believers and learn to better serve my team as a leader.
The conference was called "What Time Is It?" Maybe it was time for us to search our hearts. Maybe it was time to make some change in the way we lived. Etc.
Another thing we seemed to focus on was Discipleship. This was a really awesome thing for me because just recently I felt a calling on my heart to disciple the youth on AIM. I even had a discussion on how to do so with our Assistant Director. While I was there, I felt like the calling was growing even deeper. I felt like I had more of a heart for it.
We also had a time of Communion at the end. While we were singing I Surrender All, I started to open my hands in worship (When I worship I sometimes like to show I surrender or thankfulness to the Lord by raising my hands/arms and opening my hands). But then came the fight inside... I wasn't ready to surrender all. No. I was still holding onto my troubles and my hurts. The pain and hate I had been having inside me. I realized I wasn't ready to give it over to God. I wasn't ready to let Him help me. I had been pushing Him away. I didn't really want His help, and in the process I was making decisions that I never should have. I was hurting Him. I was hurting those around me. I was hurting myself.
After all that, I know I need to hand it all over. I need to raise my white flag of surrender. I need to give Him my hurts, my insecurities, and all the other junk I've been holding onto.
I would really appreciate your prayers as I work to be able to fully surrender everything to my wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Another thing that I really enjoyed doing during my time there was look at the standards of excellence in AIM based on 1 Timothy 4:12.
Love.
Faith.
Purity.
Speech.
Life.
Our team discussed how we modeled those excellently. We also discussed what we needed to make better and how.
This also led into more discipleship stuff. Like how to disciple the kids in these areas.
This was probably one of the biggest highlights for me of the whole weekend.
I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to go to the conference. It was a good experience for me and a blessing. :)
Thanks for reading.

Mathew 16:24-27 (New King James Version)

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.