Army Wife Network: Six Quick Tips to Fire Up Your FRG

Family Readiness Groups can be such a wonderful asset to the military spouse life. It can be a great place to connect, meet people, and receive important information about all things mission-based.

Unfortunately, all it takes is one rough FRG experience to make military spouses a bit hesitant or skeptical to participate. (It certainly follows the concept of “One bad apple ruins the whole bunch.”)

If you find yourself in this position, faced with leading or participating in an FRG that currently has the enthusiasm of a jalepeno pepper plant that has been left in the El Paso sun without water (i.e., wilted and tired—ask me how I know about this analogy), here are six quick tips to fire up your FRG.

1. Be authentic. One of the biggest turn offs is an FRG leader who is insincere or just going through the motions. Yes, there’s a time and place for false motivation, (because in tough seasons, false motivation is better than NO motivation) but bottom line, we must make an effort to keep it real.

The heart of the FRG is supporting the families and supplying pertinent information, all while keeping the drama in check. Being our authentic selves might look like saying, “Yes this deployment/TDY/etc., is hard right now… But we can do it!” (If necessary, I like to use “America!” as a verb. It makes things a little easier to handle.)

Want to read the other 5 tips? Go ahead and hop on over to AWN to read the full post there. 

Oh, and if you aren’t military, that’s ok. I think these tips are easily adaptable for ANY leadership position. If you ARE military but aren’t necessarily the FRG leader, feel free to share the original post from AWN on your social media accounts. After all, knowledge is power, and power equals victory.

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Leadership Riches

Leadership is a funny thing.

It’s awesome. It’s challenging. It’s uncertain. It forces us to grow in ways we never considered. It reaches hearts. It touches lives.

And when we put the “Christian” spin on it, it brings Jesus to those who need it.

When I started my leadership journey over 16 years ago, I had no clue that God was already involved in that process.

Back then, it was all about ME.

Now, it’s all about HIM. (Well, mostly. I still have MY days. I’m working on it.)

But for me, leadership is one of the more enjoyable, rich, and unpredictable aspects of my Jesus journey. [Read more…]

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A Little Jesus Leadership Pep-Talk

Recently I was hosting a leadership retreat for my sweet board of PWOC sisters. I intentionally carved out a bit of CRAVE time to just sit in God’s presence to see what He had to say.

Here is how He responded… And I wanted to share it with you, just in case YOU needed to hear it today. [Read more…]

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Answers in the Moment (#EverydayJesus Link-up)

Welcome to another week of our Everyday Jesus link-up. Be sure to link-up below this post, comment on your neighbor’s blog and share with your friends… Because Jesus is everywhere, every day! 

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Few things in this world freak me out more than having a total brain lapse in front of a crowd.

You know what I mean– you are in the middle of sentence, addressing someone (or several someones) about something important then BOOM.… Brain. Goes. Blank.

This happened to me earlier this summer as I was co-facilitating a three-day national leadership conference for about 45 high school students.

[Read more…]

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Finishing Strong

I personally believe that there is no other feeling in the world than accomplishing a huge goal and finishing strong.

Think about it…

When you cross the finish line of a race after weeks (or months!) of training… When you hit SUBMIT on that last paper for a really tough class… When you walk across the stage and receive that diploma that has been years in the making… When after 9 months, that little baby is finally laid in your arms for the first time…

Yep. There’s no other feeling in the world. [Read more…]

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Sticky Leadership: The Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly

Leadership.

It’s a source of influence. It’s a source of inspiration. It’s a spiritual gift. It can be used vocationally.

And it can also teach us… a lot.

Leadership is something I am very passionate about– and not only in a Biblical sense. My minor in college was leadership studies and I have always enjoyed working alongside self-less, heart-driven leaders.

Before I get too far into it, I ask that you open your mind to the leadership perspective– most people have a sliver of leadership in them somewhere… it doesn’t have to be leading a church or a huge corporation. It can be fulfilling the role as a parent to your children leading them to Christ or simply being a subtle witness at the coffee shop. On that note… [Read more…]

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Dream Team

Confession: I didn’t intend for this week’s blogposts to turn into a stream of thankfulness focused stuff. But hey, it’s where the Spirit has lead… and I am not gonna question it.

You saw yesterday my extensive list of “Thanksvember.” Apparently, that experience has reignited an attitude of gratitude within my heart.

At the time of this posting, we are nearing the end of our Christ Community Church Staff Retreat. God showed up and met us here. And he’s made it awesome. For that, I am thankful. [Read more…]

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Brought to you by: the Letters S & L

Today’s message is brought to you by the letter’s S & L. Let me explain…

Last night I was blessed to have the opportunity to teach the Christ Community Church’s Youth Ministry group about Servant leadership. It. Was. AWESOME. God definitely met us there and <hopefully> He allowed me to communicate a strong message about Jesus’ love for us and the need for us to humble ourselves in His name and serve. [Read more…]

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A Winning Team

This 8 wk semester I am taking an Evangelism class as well as a team leadership class… Here is one of my latest Discussion board posts…  Hope it hits a home run! (or at least a grounder to 3rd)

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Although the Bible doesn’t blatantly use the words “team” or “teamwork,” I truly believe that team ministry is important and can be found in a variety of Scripture references as well as foundational principles for Christianity. However, for this posting, I have determined that 1 Corinthians 12:20-26 speaks the most significantly to my heart about team ministry. [Read more…]

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