I started
drafting my thoughts a month in advance.
I had awesome props, great ideas for group involvement, and a dynamic
presentation prepared. All went well
until half-way through my first workshop.
In the middle of sharing my voice became weak and my speech began to
slur. I noticed I was having trouble
putting my words together. This was all
too familiar for me. I was having a
flare up and this was a bad one.
I explained to
the girls what was happening to me and that I needed their help. They jumped right in to assist me. I had different ones read scriptures I
prepared, some parts of my notes, and even lead out in song (I was never
planning to do that! Nobody would ever want
to hear me sing!). The song was
beautiful!
The girls
listened closely as I attempted to share what God had put on my heart. They had such sympathetic and caring
hearts. I felt bad, like I ripped them
off on their workshop even if I couldn’t do anything about it. It was frustrating.
I had a two hour
break before my next session so I thought I might be okay. I was hoping it would give time for my voice
to recover. I had no such luck. I could tell before beginning the second workshop
that I would have trouble so I improvised.
I found a dry erase marker and wrote tons of stuff on the board behind
me. They were main ideas I wanted the
girls to take home with them if I couldn’t present things very well. By the time I was done, it was covered with truths
I hoped some how landed inside their hearts.
After each point
we discussed, I would have the girls say out loud…
“I AM BEAUTIFUL!”
The first group was very quiet all along when
they said it like they didn’t believe a word they just said. The last group (with more of the older girls
in it) said it loud and proud. They even
shouted it at the end for everyone to hear down the hallway in the other
workshops. It was powerful!
At the end of
each workshop I had the girls share something that stood out to them from my
teaching time. I wanted to verify in
some way that something I said got inside or at least they heard it. From what they shared, many of them had been
impacted by my attempts to communicate with them. What God had put on my heart had gotten into
theirs in bits and pieces! God is
faithful!
I headed to work immediately
after my last workshop to finish up paperwork.
I was lucky to even get off to be there this year to speak. The minute I hit the parking lot at work I
called my doctor’s office. If I didn’t
get this flare up under control, things would get out of hand quickly. By the time I got home that night my voice
was pretty much gone and I was very weak.
The dreaded autoimmune disease strikes again! Boo!
(To read more about my condition click HERE).
I thought back
over the day… I started each workshop off by giving the girls a sheet of paper
to fill out while we waited for everyone to arrive. It was entitled, “5 things I like about
ME”. Some of the girls did a double
take. They thought it said “didn’t
like”. They were hoping it said that
because that was a much easier list for them to write. As I walked around the room, I saw many blank
pages. They couldn’t think of anything
they liked about themselves. It was sad.
For many of
us, this would be true of us too. The
struggle is real.
Once they all
arrived I introduced myself and jumped right into my teaching time. I shared how if God was here in the flesh
today beyond a shadow of a doubt I know He would brag on you and say… “That’s
my daughter isn’t she BEAUTIFUL!”
I told them that we
were going to talk about Beauty, Barbie’s, Boys, and the Best
daddy ever.
I wanted to help
them answer 3 questions they might be asking themselves
1. Who do others say that I am?
(What do others think of
ME?)
2. Who does God say that I am?
(What does God think of
ME?)
3. Who do I say that I am?
(What do I think of ME?)
Since this post
is getting long, I’m going to push PAUSE.
I want to be able to share with you all of the specifics I did with the
gals on that day. It was powerful and life
changing!
Be watching soon
for more details to come in my next post called, “What if Barbie was a real
woman?”
If you
struggle with your self-esteem, care too much what others think, have daddy
issues, or relationship troubles, you won’t want to miss this post.
If God was here
in the flesh today beyond a shadow of a doubt I know He would brag on you and
say… “That’s my daughter isn’t she BEAUTIFUL!”
(and for the guys
reading he would say…”That’s my son, isn’t he HANDSOME!”)
Believe it,
its true! God is bragging on you!
Living to leave a
legacy,
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment