Happy New Year and God’s blessings to each of you!

Let me assure you, my friends, that Lillie is still speaking to us . . . even today on this 5th day of 2016.

Find below continued enlightenment from mom’s chapter entitled “Reflections:  The Uniqueness of Women’s Leadership” in A View From the Top.  I promise you’ll be blessed.  I have to admit that this one had me in tears ~~

Listen now as she speaks:

“Knowing that God made each of us for a unique purpose is in line with the scriptures.  Jeremiah 29:11 records:

‘For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (NIV).

Where we often fall short, even as Christians, is in our doubtfulness.  We have a tendency to trust in our own instincts, our own strengths, our own natural abilities, and our own desire and/or passion to do a particular job, for example.  Just because we have certain skills and/or certain talents that have been honed through what we feel are strategically-designed opportunities for growth and advancement does not necessarily mean that a job or opportunity we desire is the right one for us.  We may want it badly, but that does not mean that it is the right one for us at the time.

A mature person, who is centered and knows her purpose, will learn to trust God’s movement in her life and will not be deterred or set back with a shut door or a ‘no’ to an opportunity she truly desires.  That opportunity may simply be delayed until the right or appointed time that the Lord orchestrates.  Such has been the case in my entire life thus far as God has orchestrated the two ‘callings’ over my life:  being a teacher, which led to an administrative career in the High Point City/Guilford County Schools; and being a preacher, which led to both a ministerial career in Mooresville, North Carolina, and administrative roles in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.

People are often amazed as they look over the span of my careers and see how I rose through the ranks.  There is no big mystery to this:  God knew my heart’s desire; He knew that I knew my ultimate purpose in life.  I learned early on that the root of my God-given purpose [lay] in my desire to be an advocate for the weak, marginalized, and voiceless people in the communities in which I have lived.  This was my aim in everything I did from teaching English literature to my high school students beginning at the former Negro High School in High Point, William Penn, and then moving over to the first integrated high school, T. Wingate Andrews, to continue teaching.  I taught my students, regardless of color, that they had a voice and that literature — having a neutral landscape — was one way to analyze and articulate voice, and to explore and examine the universal themes of human nature.  When I was tapped to become a Dean at a Junior High School, then a few years later to be a Principal, then to be an Assistant Superintendent, then to be an Associate Superintendent, then to be the Deputy Superintendent, and then ultimately, to be the Interim Superintendent, my underlying purpose never changed:  to advance the cause of the weak, marginalized, and voiceless people in the community in which I lived.

God used and honed my skill sets — my self-discipline and my ability to organize — through these leadership opportunities that allowed me to mobilize my staff and co-workers toward self-empowerment.  Upon my retirement from the school system after 35+ years, God shifted my direction to preaching.  With the same foundational purpose to help people in the community, I began seminary.  Not more than a year later, I had received my first two-church charge in the United Methodist Church.  After only 5 years, I was tapped to move into an administrative role in the office of Ethnic & Justice ministries on the conference level in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the Western North Carolina United Methodist Church.  Then once again, only a few years later, I was approached by the Bishop to consider organizing and leading the new Lake Norman District as its District Superintendent.

Again, people have marveled at my careers and often question me about how I was able to accomplish so much in what appears to be so little time.  The answer to that question has always been that I have trusted God each step of the way.  The path was not always clear; some years were extremely tough, some decisions I had to make were heartwrenching, and some folks I have had to work with meant to do me harm.  All the while, God kept me, and I stayed true to my God-given purpose.  It is my belief that God has honored what I have wanted in life because it has been in line with the purpose He has for me.  My desire all these years was not for fame and glory, yet God has richly blessed my life with abundance, posterity, and a legacy that cannot be measured.  I simply could not have asked for more than this.”

Yes, friends, I do believe that in her last three years (since the publishing of this chapter) as she added to her repertoire her Full Measure Coaching business, she was operating under the same God-given purpose.  That her last vocation would be ‘coaching’ is just like God in that as a coach and mentor, mom was able to teach and equip others how to advocate for the weak, marginalized, and the voiceless in their respective careers, many of whom were in education and ministry.  She poured into us what she had been privileged and ordained to learn, teach and preach over the course of her careers.

My prayer is that you too will operate this year, and in years to come, in alignment with God’s purpose for your lives.  The sense of fulfillment that you will have for your obedience and willingness to submit your lives to that purpose will be more than worth it in the end.  As I remember mom’s face in that beautifully-adorned white casket at the funeral home when we closed it never to reopen, though my face was filled with tears, her countenance sung peacefully, “It is well with my soul!”  God certainly responded, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

In love and charity,

Giselle