My Sharing / Caring Ministry
Sharing my heart
For many years, I was focussed on the busyness of life being a wife and a mother, too busy to notice that others around me were hurting. But several years ago, through some personal trials and struggles, I became aware of women who needed to be encouraged, who needed to know they were not alone in their pain.
So what did I do? I gave birth!
My Sharing/Caring speaking ministry was born and it has been an exciting and enriching part of my life.
My topics vary, but all focus on life issues from a Biblical perspective. Oddly enough, a sign on a gas station lot that said, Talking is sharing, listening is caring was instrumental in naming my speaking ministry. A few of the themes I have spoken on follow below, along with a small excerpt.
How Do We Colour our World?
Our physical and emotional worlds are coloured everyday by a variety of things. The music we listen to, the weather, our families and friends, our choices and even the food we eat all contribute to how we view our world…but what if our world is coloured by the unexpected, the pressures, the challenges or disappointments…the difficult situations that God has allowed to be part of our lives? How do we let these colour our spiritual world as we journey through life…and how do we let these challenges and disappointments colour the lives of those around us?
Love Came Down
In contrast to man’s understanding of love, God’s love is unconditional and selfless. Our expression of love is often self-serving and many times lacking, as portrayed in the words of a song, You always hurt the one you love, the one you shouldn’t hurt at all. God’s love, on the other hand, is pure and complete…
Who me! Hurting? (Based on the theme of my first novel)
On the surface, pain may appear to be God’s one great mistake, and we are left asking: Why would God mess up such a beautiful world by including pain in it? Why a loving God would allow us to suffer is a perplexing thought without an easy answer. But suffering is part of the human condition and comes in different forms, both physically and emotionally. All of us have suffered, are suffering or will suffer. Life involves joy and sorrow, comfort and hardship, but knowing this doesn’t make it easy to bear when pain invades our lives.
Turning Your House into a Home
I read somewhere that a house becomes a home when it embodies our hearts with love, comforts our soul when we are in pain, stimulates our minds with challenges and embraces our visitors with its warmth. But, how do we get there? How do we turn our house into a home?
To Think We Call Him Friend
Do you look forward to the times you spend with your friend, trusting her with your hopes and dreams, even your fears and frustrations? Have you ever experienced holding back, not sure if your friendship will survive the most intimate of secrets? When we talk to God we can tell Him anything, at any time, never fearing of a broken relationship. There may have been moments when we’ve felt His presence stronger than other times, not because He has moved closer, but because we are more aware of Him. And perhaps at those moments in our lives, He knows that we need to be reassured of His presence to help us trust Him more.
Yes! There IS a Story inside You!
Another approach in my speaking ministry is facilitating a workshop entitled, Yes! There IS a Story inside You! During my writing endeavours, I have learned that there is a great interest in the how-to of memoir writing, hence these workshops. Some have been held for 90 minutes—a quick intro on the topic. Others have been held for 3 hours, over a coffee or with a luncheon break, with women in various stages of life or with a mixture of women and men! Everyone participates, sharing the results of some hands-on lessons which I entitle, Set your timer for five and go! There is a lot of laughter and a willingness to be vulnerable. Everyone goes home with a duo tang that each participant can personalize throughout the workshop, making it a great reference tool. I have fun! The participants work!
Embracing a Porcupine
A third event I enjoy holding is entitled, Embracing a Porcupine, a workshop on “understanding ourselves so we can understand others.” It is the old topic of Temperaments done in a refreshing, fun-filled approach, through power point, internet videos and, once again, interaction of the attendees. Handouts covering the presentation are provided for future reference.
This event requires a longer time frame than an evening or morning Bible study, generally, a morning with an early afternoon dismissal.
Inner Beauty
Passion, Wisdom, Integrity, Selflessness, Graciousness, Contentment, Courage, Forgiveness…qualities God wants to develop and grow in all of us. But how influenced are we by society’s definition of BEAUTY? The songs we listen to, the movies we watch, the clothes we wear, the books we read too often dictate what beauty is. All we have to do is watch TV commercials, flip the pages of a current fashion magazine or, better yet, pause at a check-out counter and glance at the tabloids and we will agree that we are being inundated with the need to be strikingly beautiful. Women especially seem driven. We must have the latest in fashion and hairstyle. We must weigh a certain weight. We must go the limit to impress, even at the risk of being unwise. Sadly, morals and principles are sometimes compromised. And men cannot be excluded. They may have the same drive but under a more masculine—and all-too-often accepted—persona. It seems that from age-defying face creams to buying the right car that has the right sex-appeal, we are being bombarded from every direction with the need to be more beautiful, at any cost.
A series of lessons best suited to a day retreat.
Follow Me!