Role Models of America

5 Questions for Women in America

1. Are you longing to be connected to other women who love God and are Christians?
2. Do you miss having personal friends that stick with you through thick and thin?
3. Are there times when you need a compassionate shoulder to lean on in the time of need?
4. Have you experienced life that has given you wisdom that you now wish you could share with others?
5. Where do you go for personal education on the issues that affect you?

If you feel a connection to these questions - Role Models of America is where you belong!

Email today and get connected to other like women who can bless your life with answers, comfort and many experiences that all women experience in life.

What is a Role Model?

by Susan Young

1) How do you define the term "role model?"

Someone who is doing well in a particular field and whom one can aspire to learn and emulate.

2) Do you consider yourself a role model?

            Yes

3) Who has served as a role model for you?

            Doris Avila has been a great role model for me but there are others as well.

4) What is your greatest responsibility as a role model?

            It’s important that you are teaching and mentoring those people coming along beside you.

5) What is the most pleasant part of being a role model?

Seeing those things you are passionate about coming alive and making a positive difference in the lives of others.

6) What is the least pleasant part of being a role model?

            There is little room for error and even bad days can be hurtful.

7) What is the greatest discovery of your lifetime?

            That I serve a God that loves me not as the divine accountant but simply just because.

8) Do mentors chose protégés, or vice-versa?

Cool question. I think as much as we’d like to mentor those we see gifts in, the protégés have to be willing so I don’t think mentors chose protégés. That would be nice though.

9) How important is understanding where you "came from?"

It’s only important as a reference point. We tend to get stuck there and that can cause a victim mentality so when we make it a reference point the destination becomes the focus and that, I think, propels us forward.

10) Who do you consider historically great role models?

            Jesus, Ruth, Esther, Susan B. Anthony, Ida Wells-Barnett

11) Who do you consider historically lousy role models?

            President Bill Clinton, Gloria Steinem

12) What common characteristics can be observed in these historic persons?

            They all had a heart set upon the disadvantaged and making a difference to those in need.

13) How necessary is influence in serving as a role model?

            Role Models influence by their service so it’s necessary. I think they go hand and hand.

14) How does a role model help the protégé see the potential within?

When I mentor I try to remember the example of Jesus. Watch as I do. Watch as I do and help me. Next, I watch and you do and I help you. Then you do. 

15) How much time is spent correcting versus exhorting?

While correcting is necessary, it’s better to find the positives and try to bring those out so that they overshadow the negative.

16) How important is recognition of individual difference in role modeling?

            Very important. No one is ever going to do things exactly as you do.

17) What personal characteristics best relate to serving as a role model?

Being able to communicate your heart and your passion is essential. Being stable and trustworthy, being able to let go of ownership and being social helps.

18) How important is patience in serving as a role model?

            Without it you will frustrate yourself and kill your protégé.

19) What role does an outgoing personality have in serving as a role model?

            I think that in order to motivate you’ve got to be outgoing.

20) Do you impart a personal message of overcoming?

            Always.

21) Does a role model empower others through decision-making?

            Yes, when the people you are leading feel that you know what you are doing, they’ll follow.

22) How powerful a force is a positive attitude in role modeling?

            No one wants to follow a negative cause.

23) What part does humility play in role modeling?

            I think if we lose humility we lose our ability to role model.

24) Is it necessary that a role model serve in the same profession as the protégé desires to be in?

            No.

25) Are professional athletes and other celebrities’ good role models?

I don’t think we can point to a profession. I think we’d have to look at the person individually.      

26) How important is inspiration in serving as a role model?

            You have to be able to inspire others so you have to be inspired.

27) Do personal habits count in serving as a role model?

            Yes.

28) How important is physical importance in serving as a role model?

As in appearance? I guess it depends. If I am role modeling fitness then I should well and take care of myself and be someone who doesn’t do things that harm my body. If I’m a chef and I’m overweight then I hear that makes you trustworthy.

29) Does clothing impact your function as a role model?

Again, I guess it depends. I think it’s more important to be clean and put together, dressing appropriately for the field you’re in.

30) Is anything more important than vision-casting for a role model?   

                Belief in what you’re doing and knowing where you’re wanting to go is the key. So probably not.

               

The Value of a Daddy

 

 

                                      It was my birthday and the empty card arrived.  I was instantly angry.  I knew that on my sisters birthday she had received a big whopper of a check and so did her children.  And once again nothing for me. I wonder what makes a man decide not to love his daughter.  Am I a disappointment?  Not successful, smart, or pretty enough. Was there something at birth that made me unworthy of his love somehow?  I turned forty this year, you would think I was over this, but each new rejection brings the same old question.  What did I do to warrant such treatment from my own dad?  What could sever the parental connection so completely?  It makes me wonder, if my own parent can't love me -who can??

                                      Then I think of my husband.  He is also an imperfect father, however he stayed through the good times and the really bad times.  Our children never had to earn his love, because it was given freely.  My children have a daddy that always has a kind word and good advice.  Someone who will listen to a teenage girl ramble on about the boy of the day.  He inspires them to reach for more in their lives, and is patient if they can't reach it yet.  He is a firm disciplinarian, but will protect with his own life.  I think about our lives and know my children are blessed.  A father has the power to bless or curse with long ranging effects, but a daddy helps you grow into who you will become.   I guess its time to finally put this hurt little girl away and grow into the woman my Daddy created me to be. My father may choose not to love me, but my Daddy chose me long before I knew him. 

                                       What about the next generation of children?  Divorce is commonplace.  Parents leave never looking back on the carnage left behind.  This is the new rule, not the exception anymore.  How many kids are growing up feeling unworthy, unloved, rejected, forgotten or invisible?  Or how about those replaced by the "new " family.  America its time to rise up!!  These little people are our responsibility.  Not just our children -ALL children. I want to challenge you today to reach out and touch a child's life.  We as Christians are supposed to imitate Jesus Christ right?  I can't imagine that he is happy with the state of our affairs.  A small kindness can go a long way to a love starved child. If you carry that hole in your heart, I would like to introduce you to my Daddy.  His love is pure.  He will fill that empty place with joy, and purpose.  The best part for me is he doesn't change his mind.

       Psalm 68:5,6a   Father of the fatherless, defender of widows this is God whose dwelling is Holy.  God places the lonely in families He sets the prisoners free and gives them joy

The Beauty of Pearls

By: Deborah R.

Interesting thing about pearls is that they are oldest known gem, and for many centuries it was considered the most valuable. Unlike all gems, the pearl is organic matter derived from a living creature - oysters and mollusks.

There is much folklore and tradition about the pearl. It was said in some early cultures that the pearl was born when a single drop of rain fell from the heavens and became the heart of the oyster. Pearls have been called the 'teardrops of the moon'. Some believe that pearls were formed by the passage of angels through the clouds of heaven.  Whether true or not, thinking about angels passing through the clouds of heaven is a comforting thought to the soul.

Recently, I have received two gifts that are made up of pearls.  I’m really not a jewelry person but I do like pearls.  There is something about them that draws me.  For our two year anniversary, my husband gave me a pearl ring that has small diamonds around it.  I love it!  To me it is the classic beautiful representation of simplistic eloquence.  Not too showy just right for me.

Within the same week, a friend gave me a gift that was very special and unique.  It was a two-stranded pearl necklace.  These are not your usual pearls.  These are pearls that have not been touched by the tools of man.  They are in their natural state; all different sizes, colors and shapes.  They are called baroque pearls.  This is the note that came with them.

“God wanted me to tell you to look at each pearl-different sizes, colors and shapes all with deep and different scars.  These pearls are 100% real and trash by jewelers standards.  They’ve been broken, then fixed by a pair of hands that love you very much.  Remember a group of trash unified in one true purpose creates a new beauty never before seen.  God wants you to remember he sees your beauty inside and out…through and through.”

The process of forming these pearls….you can see the lines that run through them.  Each one distinctly unique and has it’s own story of how it was formed all due to an irritation; created from a living creature.  Think about a microscopic particle being lodge in the lining of a shell.  Although the mollusk becomes irritated, it takes that irritation and in the process of protecting it’s delicate interior it produces a rare and valuable gem.

Our lives are the same way, unfortunately, many of us we don’t produce gems out of the irritations of life.  Why should we?  Maybe to us it’s just a rock or a stone but someone else, it becomes a priceless gem. 

What has been or is an irritation in your life?  Are you dealing with it the way the world tells you to or are you applying the Word of God to it?  Not just pulling it out and discarding with no value but wrapping that irritation with the gentleness of the Holy Spirit and soothing it with scripture.  If we keep doing this over and over every time it irritates us, maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to gain from it. 

What gems do you have from life to put in your crown?  What gems have you cultivated?  What gems have you left behind because to them was too hard?  Or maybe you thought it would cost you too much?  Matthew 7:6, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”  Pearls are very rare precious gems.

We all have been given different gems to cultivate…take up your tools and begin to work!  1 John 4:4, You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Lying LIps

If we throw out the 10 Commandments and say, we as a nation don't need to publicize or promote these laws, we as a nation will crumble. Why?  Let's talk about it. Just take one single Law such as the Law that says,  'Thou Shalt Not Lie'.  Let's throw it out.  Who needs this right?

If it's okay to now lie, how will it affect women?

Lying lips bring trouble in a marriage. Lies erode trust. If you can't trust what your husband/boyfriend says because he lies..... then his actions will ultimately destroy.  He could be hiding things from you. He might be using money unwisely costing the family down the road. He possibly could be working someplace other than where you think he is. He could be making more money or less than what you think. Or worse - is it possible that he is cheating on you. Is it okay to lie?

Lying lips bring trouble in a family. Children that lie cannot be trusted to grow up properly.  They will play games and manipulate to get their own way. They could be in trouble at school and you would not know it. Lying about it, does not remove the trouble. They could be running into drug use and bring destruction upon their own heads and you would not know it. Lying about drugs does not remove the terrible reactions it causes. Lying kids start living in two worlds - the one they create and the real one. It brings certain trouble. What if your daughter is lying about sleeping with a boy, then you find out in the end she is pregnant.  Is it okay to lie?

Lying lips bring trouble on the job. Employees that lie cause turmoil on the workplace. Deadlines get missed and then hidden. Quotas aren't met and then blame happens. Lies between co-workers cause great problems down the road.  Sometimes the words 'it was a misunderstanding'  are used to cover up a lie. But eventually the truth comes out and someone's reputation is lost because of lies.  Still think 'Thou Shalt Not Lie' does not apply?

Suppose it 's okay for our government to lie to us. Will the truth not come out in the end and we find out as a people that our economy is in the tank. Retirements are lost, jobs are lost, the economy breaks down into personal lives and bank accounts causing huge amounts of sorrow.  Lying happened in the housing markets - look where it have taken thousands of families in their homes in the end!

What about your banker? What if it's okay for him to lie to you about your deposits?  How about your savings - would it be okay for your bank to lie to you about your hard earned savings?

How about the Doctor? Sure go ahead and lie to me about my kids health. What woman believes that would be a good thing!  Go ahead lie to me about a broken bone, the lie won't remove the pain of reality of a truly broken bone.

People lie all the time and think they are getting by with it. But a mechanic shop that lies to it's customers will eventually be found out as people compare notes on their repairs at that shop. And slowly the reputation of the company erodes and the business will be avoided like the plague and they will go out of business for the lack of business, or rather for the lack of a trustworthy service.

Who loves lying politicians?

Who in their right mind would not mind being lied to about their insurance coverage.  And then only to find out after a bad storm all the payments they had made through the years now give nothing back to help them recover.

'Thou Shalt Not Lie' CERTAINLY DOES apply to everybody, and those who want God's Law about lying to be taken out of public areas - should be watched carefully.  Do they really think it's ok to lie?

If so..... what are they themselves lying about? Hmmmmmmm.

Watch your lips today and obey God's Laws. When you tell the truth you don't have to remember what you said!