A Reason to Stand: FEARless (quarantine event)

The day I started my blog I thought I was going to be writing a story of hate about a broken girl, in a mess of a life, raising hurting broken children. Instead that day I was given a gift—to see that life, those kids, that girl in a new way. Instead of seeing the pain, I remembered moments where a little glimmer of light carried us through. 

A little glimmer of light is all a broken girl needs to be brave. 

Sometimes it takes a miracle to see a glimmer of light when you are—or feel—stuck in the dark. My life—just like yours—has been full of these moments. I call them grace—a gift I used to think would be given when I lived a perfect plan—but have come to see as a gift that lifts us when it feels impossible. These moments—of grace—have shown me what it feels like to have hope. In the world, in God, in others...and in myself. 

Brave isn’t a word to describe someone living a perfect plan. It is a word to describe someone who holds onto those glimmers of light through the darkness and lives life anyway. Brave is someone who is hurting and shows up for someone else. Brave is being scared to death you aren’t enough, but trusting that you have a Creator who believes you are. That’s grace—a Savior show sees us just as we are and loves us anyway. 

Grace. Watch for it. It comes quietly. It doesn’t always change the pain—or take away what is scary, but it always bring peace, if even just for a glimmer of a second.  A light at the end of the tunnel promising that there is a reason to make it through. It brings hope and light regardless of where or who we are. Hope in grace is the decision to trust in God’s plan, and to know that even this darkness will one day end. 

I know it will. 

Tonight would have been A Reason to Stand in Brigham City. Since we can’t meet in real life...we are coming to you. Follow this link to find a virtual event with so many amazing people sharing stories and tools of FEARless warriors. Please leave comments for our presenters—as speaking to a phone is so different than standing on a stage and getting the energy and direction you feel from the audience.  That is the part we all miss as we have struggled to speak from our hearts to people we don’t get to walk up and hug after.

Happy quarantine online conference. You aren’t alone. You are enough. You are brave. You are a warrior! FEARless. 

Please share with friends and family that could benefit from hearing these messages.

We miss you and so appreciate your support and the support you are giving each other through this hard time. Stay safe and healthy, and most of all look for those little glimmers of light.

Here is the YouTube link to the conference playlist:  https://bit.ly/2S23dBb

Come meet me!

Hey guys! I am excited to finally be planning the next conference. It will be in Rigby, Idaho (by Idaho Falls) on Jan. 9th, 2020. Thank you for your patience and love the last few months as I adjusted and recovered. I will add in this post a video of some of the fights we had this summer. Also I will link here tickets to the event for my non profit A Reason to Stand. It is not a big auditorium like we have been using lately, so don't wait to reserve your seat. Can't wait to gather and see everyone again. .... ....

A Reason to Stand: North Ogden

Had an amazing event at A Reason to Stand this past Friday. My favorite one yet! The high school sponsored us and we got to put on an assembly that morning. It was so powerful. We felt blessed to have Kechi and Jennie Taylor come join us. Here is a news clip from the assembly. 

https://ksltv.com/409191/trauma-survivors-share-stories-tonight-weber-high/

And some pics from the evening:

Now that A Reason to Stand will be running as a non profit organization, we will be looking for quality businesses to collaborate with, and offer sponsorship opportunities. Please contact one of us at areasontostand@gmail.com for more information. 

A Reason to Stand: Fighting for me

I have a treat for you...


Provo, Utah

Be More Creative Studios

November 4th, 2017

1pm-6pm

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Fighting for Me

Music from last Saturday's A Reason to Stand. Bostyn and Bailey put together something special with one of my favorite songs from Sia. And the beautiful Ashley Hess came back with her original song written about our journey, "The Moment You Stand".

Nampa, Idaho

So . . . since Rexburg is sold out. I have a surprise for you Idaho. June 3rd I have opened up another chance for you to join us for a conference.

Nampa, Idaho

Nampa Civic Center

June 3, 2017

 1-6pm 

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Good news . . . Eastern Idaho. This is going down for real. 

A Reason to Stand: Fighting for Me

Rexburg, Idaho

The Atrium at Hemming Village

Friday, April 21st

4-9pm

For more information visit www.areasontostand.com

Fighting for Me

Well I am so excited to announce one of the next conferences!! In March we will be in Logan, Utah!! I asked on Instagram and Facebook . . . and I am listening. So here we come Logan! Please tell your friends.

A Reason to Stand: Fighting for Me

March 4th
Logan, Utah

1-6pm

Get your seats saved!! I am doing everything a little different this time, and you are not going to want to miss this one.

Happy Holidays. If you don't know what you want for Christmas . . . I think I just answered that for you!!

Here is one way to get your seat saved. Or head over to the conference website: A Reason to Stand and check out presenters and find out more.

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Survivors

Had a great interview with 2 News Fresh Living in Utah that aired today. So excited to be working with Dawn Armstrong and many others for October 22nd in St. George. Click on link below for full interview.

http://kutv.com/features/fresh-living/a-reason-to-stand-young-mother-uses-husbands-murder-as-way-to-inspire-others-to-survive

St. George, Utah

It is time to start reserving your seat for St. George. October 22, 2016. See you there. 

For more information visit A Reason to Stand

Lexington, SC

Exciting News!! The opportunity has come up for A Reason to Stand to come to South Carolina on June 4th!! So excited to connect with some of my friends back East. Please email me if you have any questions! And I can't wait to see you there. Address is 660 Rawl Rd. Lexington, South Carolina 29072.

Lexington, SC

June 4th, 2016

 1-5pm

www.areasontostand.com

Set Free

I wanted to share my presentation from A Reason to Stand in Boise a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to have the whole thing recorded. Feel free to share it or use it. It is very different than any other talk I have ever done, but I learned so much that day about forgiveness as I shared my heart.

Thank you so much for all the support and love I have received over the last five years. I spent many years hidden behind so much pain, and there were many people who loved me anyway. What a great blessing of unconditional love.

To all of you who have followed me on this journey of forgiveness, thank you for helping me stand.

For more information about upcoming conferences please visit A Reason to Stand. St. George, Utah in October, and there is even talk about throwing in a summer conference back east! To be announced soon.

Valentines Day Giveaway

***GIVEAWAY***

Just in time for Valentines Day I want to give away a ticket to A Reason to Stand online day March 4th along with both of my books. (or if the winner will be in the Boise Idaho area, you can have the option to get a ticket for the live event on March 5th)

To enter:

1.Tag a friend who deserves to feel loved this week

2. Leave a comment on something you love about yourself

I will pick a winner on Valentines Day. One here, one on Facebook, and one on Instagram. Love yourself this week!

*If you are looking for a good Valentines day present for yourself or someone you love, this week tickets to both online and Boise will be half off with the code "LOVE" at checkout on www.areasontostand.com. 

 

A Reason to Stand Review

Here is a sweet article the Standard Examiner in Ogden wrote about attending my last conference. They even made a little video of clips from the conference and our interview.

http://www.standard.net/Local/2015/10/25/Cheating-husband-s-murder-propels-Idaho-woman-to-stand-tall.html

Presenter Highlight Clips

I have been collecting videos from people from the Ogden, Utah A Reason to Stand conference. Made a little highlight video of the weekend. Getting so excited as I have been planning Boise for March 5th!

A Reason to Stand has more information!

Grief Website

http://howdoigoon.org

A few years ago I was invited to a widows conference. I didn’t go. Then the same women invited me to come meet up to talk about a project they were working on to help other widows. I was already going to be in Utah for a few speaking engagements so I made arrangements to attend.

We all met up at a cabin and spent the night sharing stories and ideas about things that would have helped us through the loss of our spouses.

As I looked around the room—it was full of beautiful things. Four woman—all young moms—who had been through the death of their spouse. It almost didn’t seem fair. We had all been through that pain. We had all felt completely alone at times. We had all stood on top of a grave of the man we thought would be by our side through our life.

In that moment, I almost wished I could step back a few years and have these women by my side as I fumbled my way through grief. How would the process have been different, if I knew back then that I wasn’t alone?

I knew I had to be a part of the mission we had all come together to complete—we just had to figure out where to begin.

And that is where a website was a born. How do I go on?

It has been a great blessing to be a part of the building of this grief website. It has been quite the process and I am amazed at the work and diligence that has been given by these special women. A few years ago we all met as widows with the drive to make a difference for others who had been where we had been, but have watched this project bloom into something amazing. This website began as a resource for widows grieving the loss of their spouses, but has blossomed into a resource for anyone who is experiencing a loss in their life.  

When coping with grief, it is easy to feel alone, broken, and isolated. This website is to help combat that darkness and help others find hope in their pain. There are stories from all phases of the grieving process to help through these struggles. Job loss, death, divorce, infidelity, heart break, war, and depression, etc. Sometimes a loss is simply realizing you will not live the life you always thought you would. Many things we lose in life are hard to put into words, but the pain is still real. 

We all will at one time or another experience a loss of some kind. Grief, and its misery, does not have to break us. I hope this website can lighten the loads that we carry, and bring peace to our hearts. 

http://howdoigoon.org

A Reason To Stand

Over the past year I have been asked to speak at all sorts of different types of conferences and other uplifting gatherings. I have had the privilege to meet people from all walks of life—young and old, male and female, single and married.

In all of these settings I have found one thing to be true—I am not alone! For the first time in my journey I have been surrounded by the love of others in pain.

So many people are hurting. Everyone I have been blessed to meet has a completely unique story, yet each one has been paved with rocky roads. I have heard thousands of stories of different struggles, and overwhelming fears of how scary the future can seem. Some struggle silently—completely alone. Others are surrounded by support, but have never felt more abandoned in their lives.

We all have something in our stories that has tried to break us. Each of us know what it is like to hold our hands to heaven and pray for an answer, a way out, or a path back.

The last few months I have been reaching my hands toward heaven for an answer for every broken soul who has come to me seeking hope. Many nights I have sat on my bed crying tears for complete strangers—I have begged Heavenly Father to help me save just one.

Today I am humbled to be part of a new journey. I have been given the opportunity to put into action the pleadings of my heart.  I am pleased to announce A Reason to Stand. A conference of healing for anyone who has ever felt broken, alone, or not enough. This years theme is going to be The Unspoken Truth: You are enough.

Starting in my own community on May 9^th, 2015 at the Boise Center on the Grove, I will be holding a healing conference for men and women from 8am to 6pm.

The day will be an uplifting array of personal stories, motivational speakers, therapists, and counselors. It will be faith based, but no specific religion. We will have an hour and a half break for lunch. Light snacks will be served during the smaller breaks. We will have keynote speakers, and many break out sessions throughout the day. Each person will even have the opportunity, if they wish, to have some time in small group sessions with some of the most amazing therapists I know.

My goal is to have everyone who gets to participate in this conference to walk away with tools—to not only be motivated to make changes in their lives—but to understand how.

I have written so many times on my blog about asking why. At different times in our lives, we all ask why. Why did this have to happen to me? Why have I had to give up the dreams I always thought I would live? Why haven’t I been able to find happiness? Why am I not enough?

In this conference we are not going to spend much time on why. Many of the speakers are going to share experiences on times in their life when they were humbled to ask why—but will focus on the tools that lifted them higher and showed them how to keep moving forward.

I am excited to be part of this amazing group preparing for May 9^th.

Some of the speakers I have already lined up are Jason Wright (New York times best selling author), L.jay Mitchell (therapist and author of Decide Now: The Good Life or the Best Life), Lori Zenahlik-Wallis (survivor of losing her husband and her four children in a plane crash in 1998), Will Hansen (marriage and family therapist), Polly and Jacob Scott (Addo Recovery). (More to announce soon)

Some of the break out classes will be geared to personalized struggles, and others will be less specified, personal self betterment. Each hour of the break out classes will have a few topics to choose from—but there will not be a bad seat in the house. All of these people I am inviting have something amazing to offer and I can’t wait to learn from each of them.

At the end of the conference I am going to take the last hour and wrap up the day. I am going to tell some of the stories of my past that have pulled me out of the trenches, and share some of my personal experiences on finding myself, seeking hope, reaching for faith, and learning to love again—and how I have learned to love myself, broken and all.

We are all broken. We have all been victimized by something. The world has given us a million reasons why we aren’t enough. On May 9^th, I hope everyone who joins me will walk away remembering all the reasons why they are. Truth is: you are enough. We are not victims . . . we are survivors! 

The Boise Center on the Grove is excited to have us, and they are making an extra special effort to make this a beautiful day.

I have been given so much from this community. The love and support, and rally of hands who have been by my side still continue to amaze me. Thank you for helping my family when we could not stand on our own four years ago, and every day since. It feels good to finally take my turn to contribute something in return.

Thank you to everyone who has been so willing to help me pull this together. I look forward to healing along with you.

I am working on getting a website devoted to tickets sales and information for A Reason to Stand, but early bird tickets are available here. Just click on the buy now link below to secure a spot. 

Conference tickets:

We are looking for business sponsors! Please contact me for more information.

And I will be working on getting scholarship options available as donations come in!

And if anyone would like to donate—or if you have something you think you could offer this program please contact me at themomentswestand@gmail.com.  The proceeds from this event will be used to fund taking A Reason to Stand to another community this year. Thank you!