My Mantra Inspired by Karen Kingsbury
This year I came up with the PERFECT Christmas gift for Jessica. Karen Kingsbury, her favorite author, was guest speaking at a women’s conference near by. So I got two tickets and contacted Karen to ask if she would specially autograph a book for the occasion. She and her mother, Anne Kingsbury, were so wonderful in helping me to pull this off. I bought the Red Gloves book and Karen signed it with a message saying “Christmas, 2007 Jessica, See you soon! Love and Joy! Karen Heb 12:2 Jer 29:11″. She always has the perfect words!
When Jessica opened the book, and red gloves I included, it took her a while to put it all together and figure out that she would be meeting her hero, Karen Kingsbury on January 5, 2008. She was so excited and the present was a hit!
We went to the conference yesterday and had a blast! The break out sessions on improving relationships with men, children and ourselves were good. The lunch was delicious– I had chicken, jess had fish. We even sat with a friend of Karen’s who shared some very touching personal stories about how truly sweet and down to earth Karen and her family are. But the very best part of all was Karen’s presentation.
She told us some very funny stories from her own life and shared pearls of wisdom about living our best every day. There were two main points that stuck with me in particular: “life is all about how we live our lives between Sundays” (the title of her latest book) and a letter a father sent to his estranged daughter simply said “I’m sorry. I love you. Let’s start again.”
“I’m sorry. I love you. Let’s start again.” This is my letter to myself and my mantra for the year. I haven’t been very nice to myself over the years. I have neglected my body, health and personal needs for the people and things I mistakenly thought were more important. “Dear body, I’m sorry. I love you. Lets start again.”
We were able to meet up with Karen and her mother, Anne, at the end of the conference. They were even nicer in person! Karen had wonderful words of encouragement for Jessica’s aspirations of a career as an author. She said “My father used to always tell me ‘Somebody has to be the next bestselling author. That’s going to be you.’ Now I say that to you. You’re going to be the next bestselling author.” Isn’t that just the sweetest thing ever! Thank you, Karen. You are such a great role model for young aspiring Christian authors!
I was even more touched when her 15 year old son pulled a handicapped woman out of the book signing line and brought her straight to his mom. What a genuinely kind family!
It was a great day and a great memory to have with my daughter! If you have a blog post with a similar story or would like to share your 2008 mantra please post a link or comment below.
(This may have been a little long for a post, but trust me it’s the short version. LOL!)
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