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By Julie Lavender @JLavenderWrites

In less than a week, I’ll pack my bags to head to the 50^th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, even though you won’t read this until after the conference takes place. You’re probably like me and you’ve enjoyed watching the countdown posts on the Blue Ridge Conference Writers’ Facebook page.

But this time last year, I wasn’t preparing for the conference. It would be the first Blue Ridge conference I missed in a lot of years. I had a happy reason for my absence – my pregnant daughter had a work-related, baby event during that time. And as happy as I was about that blessed event, I was so disappointed to miss the conference.

My emotions ranged from sadness to grief to jealousy, and even to a bit of bitterness. I knew my roller coaster feelings weren’t healthy (and bordered on sinful), so I turned to the Lord for help.

Through prayer, the Holy Spirit reminded me that we have different seasons in life. (My head already knew that cliché, but it took a bit for my heart to catch up.) Sometimes a conference just isn’t part of our current season.

Perhaps it’s a financial issue – I certainly had many years where that was the case for me. Often, family responsibilities interfere with conference schedules. As a military family when my children were in the baby and toddler stages, unpredictable deployments kept me from attending conferences. And sometimes, it’s the opposite end of spectrum, like when aging parents prevent us from committing to a conference.

When a happy event – a new grandchild – kept me from last year’s conference, the Holy Spirit prompted me to pray. Not for me and my attitude per se, but to pray for others attending the conference that I was missing. Because apparently a conference was meant for their particular season of life.

I prayed for directors, faculty members, and staff. I prayed for Ridgecrest workers and volunteers. I smiled and maybe even hummed a few lines when I prayed for times of worship. I prayed for editors and agents and writers. I prayed for conference attendees, especially first-timers. I requested God’s protection over travels. I prayed about weather and meals. I pleaded with God to orchestrate diving appointments. I mentioned contest winners in my prayers and contest disappointments. And I especially prayed for those friends I knew by name who would be in attendance.

My prayers diminished jealous thoughts and bitter feelings and replaced those with happiness for conference-goers. Yes, I was still disappointed I couldn’t be there, but I was grateful for past memories of time spent at Blue Ridge and other favorite conferences. And it gave me such joy to pray for the good things I knew God would do during the week of the conference.

If you can’t make it to a favorite conference this year for whatever reason, try praying diligently for those that will attend. I think you’ll enjoy the prayer time as much as I did!

Julie Lavender worked on the computer for many nights until the wee hours of the morning to complete her newest book, Raising Good Sons: Christian Parenting Principles for Nurturing Boys of Faith and Characterthat releases the second week of April. Julie co-authored the book, published by Penguin Random House, with her hubby, David. It’s their first faith-based collaborative effort, though they’ve also recently written twenty-two books for the children’s educational market. Julie is also the author of A Gingerbread House, published by End Game Press.