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Jesus Christ

Blog, Faith, pets, Speaking, Travel, Writing

What’s new: Speaking, writing, and Marmalade’s home

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged here at BethJones.net so I thought I’d share about what’s new.  One of the most exciting things is that I just graduated from Robyn Dystra’s 8-week Christian Speakers Bootcamp. The best part was having access to Robyn live on a weekly Zoom meeting, where she shared the wealth of her years of experience speaking and answered our questions about speaking. 

This is my digital certificate from the class, and Robyn is mailing all of us a paper certificate, too. Isn’t it cool?!

Christian Speakers Bootcamp digital certificate

Second, Robyn assigned a speech coach to everyone in the training. Mine was Lisa Betz, an award-winning novelist.  She was great and helped me to greatly improve and polish my Cinderella signature talk

My signature talk is about Cinderella's story and her glass slipper: The right shoes can take you to exciting places!

My signature talk is about Cinderella’s story & her glass slippers: The right shoes can take you to exciting places!

We also got a practice and prayer partner, to help us practice our “elevator pitch” (what you say when you meet someone new and he or she says, “What do you do?”). Our speech coach worked with us on this, too. Here’s mine:

Me in denim dress recently on a trip with Ray to Columbia, Missouri

Me in denim dress recently on a trip with Ray to Columbia, Missouri

“I’m Beth Jones, an International Speaker and Author of 30 books. I believe we should dream BIG because we serve a BIG GOD! I help women to step out of fear into faith in Jesus Christ, by sharing my story and the Bible about how much God loves us and the freedom we have in Jesus.”

What do you think?

If you’re an event planner or know someone who is who needs a speaker for their women’s conference, event, or workshop, please contact me here.

If you have never heard me share my story, you can read it in my memoir, Promises in the Dark: One Woman’s Search for Authentic Love, available at Amazon here.

 

Promises in the Dark graphic

Promises in the Dark: One Woman’s Search for Authentic Love graphic

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Blog, Faith, Family, Marriage, Parenting, prayer, Spiritual Gifts, worship/praise/music

When you’re looking for a new church home

Image: Edward Cisneros @ Unsplash

Image: Edward Cisneros @ Unsplash

My husband Ray and I have been looking for a new church home for years. I’m excited about the new church that we’ve been attending, Hope City Church of Harrisonville, Missouri. Why? We’re among the 1/3 of people who used to attend church, but now stay away specifically because they “lost trust in God, the church, or Christians.” (According to a 2019 “Unchurched Report” by Billy Graham Center Institute and Lifeway Research, You Found Me, Rich Richardson, p. 47)

Image: Julian Florez at Unsplash

Image: Julian Florez at Unsplash

It’s a startling and scary fact that the number of youth (Americans ages 18-29) who have no religious affiliation has nearly quadrupled in the last 30 years, and 59% of millennials raised in a church have dropped out.

There are several reasons that Ray and I and our children were wounded that I won’t go into here, but we’ve had to walk through a LOT of forgiveness. Unfortunately, there are many people in the same boat. My hope is that this new church will be a safe haven for us of God’s agape (unconditional) love, truth, and forgiveness; that we can make new friends; and that we’ll be able to serve in the Body of Christ and use our spiritual gifts, talents, and skills for God’s glory there. 

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Blog, Business, Faith, Family, Fitness, Marriage, Parenting, prayer, Speaking, Spiritual Gifts, Stress, Travel

Are you making 2nd quarter goals? Hope, health, & happiness.

Image source: Katie Harp @ Unsplash

Image source: Katie Harp @ Unsplash

Yesterday I met with our CPA to file our 2022 taxes. So. Not. Fun!

My husband Ray and I now owe even more taxes than the year before. I’m looking to Jehovah Jireh our Provider. 

God provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice to God instead of his beloved, precious son Isaac. God told Abraham to kill Isaac to test Abraham’s faith in Him. When God saw that Abraham was going to obey, not even withholding from God his son who he waited years into his old age to have and who he greatly loved, God stopped Abraham.

“Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.” (Genesis 22:13, NKJV)

I’m also praying for a payment plan with the IRS to pay the taxes that we owe. Now that we’re into the second quarter of 2023, I’m making other goals as well. Are you?

To summarize them, my new goals are hope, health, and happiness. 

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