"Partly
Cloudy with Scattered Worries:
Finding Peace and Trust in God in All Kinds of Circumstances"
Kathy's new book is Partly Cloudy with Scattered Worries from Bethany House Publishers. Kathy is eager to share with women how they can trust God more, reduce worry (even eliminate it), and have greater peace in their lives. Through biblical instruction, practical ideas, motivating examples and a look into the lives of biblical women, Kathy inspires women to believe God knows best, loves her and can use every worry for His glory and her good.
When
you schedule Kathy to speak on this theme, you may choose which of the following
topics you'd like covered (depending upon the length of the speaking sessions)
or Kathy can choose her favorites.
Topic
1: Anticipating a Storm: What You
Fear May be the Greatest Blessing
Romans
Topic
2: Walking on the Sunny Side:
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
God
can be trusted because His love is pure, perfect, and prudent. Women will both
believe and feel God’s love more intensely because of Kathy’s teaching,
especially as she looks into the life of Rebekah.
Topic
3: Catching the Rainbow: How Prayer
Alleviates Worry
Philippians 4:6 tells us that committing our
concerns to God and believing that He is capable of caring for us frees us from
Satan's ploy to paralyze us with fear and worry. Kathy emphasizes that truth
from the life of Hannah.
Topic
4: Don’t Forget Your Umbrella: How
Gratitude Protects Your Heart
Philippians 4: 7 reveals that when we pray, a
"guard" or "sentinel" protects us from worry. Michal,
David's wife, didn't call upon this "sentinel" and made her life
miserable. Kathy tells how to avoid that.
Topic
5: Seeing Past the Snow Storm: How
God’s Sovereignty Provides
Kathy shares important principles from Matthew 6:25-33 about God’s sovereignty and also looks into the life of Naomi whose worry resulted in deep depression.
Topic
6: April Showers Bring May Flowers:
Seeing the Purpose in Troubles
We
must recognize that we shouldn't even try to avoid troubles through worry, for
God has a plan for using our troubles for our good and His glory. Abigail had an
attitude like that.
Topic
7: Ice Storm: How to Keep Worrying
from Slipping into Controlling Others
When we worry, we can be
tempted to try to protect other people by controlling them. But worry can’t
communicate love, change others or control other
people. Salome is an example of that.
Topic
8: Rain Behind You: How the Past Can
Cloud the Present
Regrets
are a form of worry and can wreck havoc in our trust in God. Instead, we need to
remember but not regret, remember but forgive, and
remember but look forward. We can learn those principles from the life of
Miriam.
Topic
9: Tornado A-Comin’: Finding the
Storm Cellar of God’s Power
Our
trust in God grows—and worry diminishes—when we truly believe that God can
do whatever He wants, He can do all
He wants, He can do however He wants
and He can do whenever He wants. Those
are the principles we learn from the life of Esther
who saw God’s power.
Here's another Retreat Theme:
"Princess to Princess"
Princess to Princess, (both book and retreat topic) is about how a woman can recognize and operate within her God-given inheritance in Christ.
I use both a fictional modern woman and a biblical woman to discover the keys for making that "inheritance" a reality in our lives.
Here are the "inheritances" l cover in the book.
1. Strong: Abigail
2. Righteous: Martha
3. Precious: Leah
4. Protected: Hagar
5. Predestined for good works: Priscilla
6. Having the mind of Christ: Deborah
7. Not Condemned: adulterous woman, forgiven by Jesus
8. Secure and Sealed with the Holy Spirit: Rahab
I hope this list tantalizes your thinking of how you'd like some or all of these topics included in a future retreat or seminar. I would need around 60-75 minutes to cover one inheritance.
For each inheritance, I've written out one skit about the Biblical woman and one skit for a modern woman who learns to incorporate her inheritance in Christ. I call for volunteers from the audience to read the scripts. The women love it! They learn even more as they see women they know get involved.
And just think of the decorating and the ways you can carry out the "Princess" theme. Tiaras, scepters, robes, crowns...making each woman feel special and important to God and to others...and to know and live out the wonderful inheritance she has as a Princess of the King.
Here's Another Retreat Topic:
Heart of Grace
Kathy's material from her book on perfectionism, Why Do I Put So Much Pressure on Myself and Others?, can be transformed into presentations on the theme of grace for your next retreat. Everyone needs God's grace and every one of us could benefit from learning how to give more grace to others. Without that grace toward ourselves and others, we are hard taskmasters and unhappy people.
Kathy inspires the women in her audience during these presentations to:
 |
understand why other people act as they do |
|
forgive even when they've been hurt |
|
become more compassionate and flexible |
|
be grateful for whatever level of performance someone can give |
|
release trying to control others |
|
identify her position in Christ |
|
appreciate fully God's gracious gift of salvation |
And Another ...
Kathy's Topic on
"Looking
at Life With Eternity in Mind"
Is a Hit With
Women!
One
of Kathy's most popular topics for retreats is "Through His Eyes" and is based on her book with
NavPress entitled Through His Eyes.
In this series of presentations which are perfect for a women's retreat or day long event, Kathy takes the audience through a meaningful examination of the book of Philippians with the goal of helping them look at life through God's perspective. Our tendency is to look at life through our own earthly viewpoint, but Paul's letter to the Philippians offers an eternal mindset about the most common things we deal with in life.
In relating her material to her audience, Kathy uses a variety of entertaining eye glasses which also speak specifically to the topic Kathy is addressing.
For
instance, here is Kathy wearing her "bug" glasses as she speaks about
how worry magnifies our earthly perspective. Based on Philippians 4:6-7, Kathy
offers her audience an eternal perspective of learning to trust God through
prayer.
In her presentations on the theme of In these presentations, Kathy examines different topics and points out the difference that an eternal perspective makes in each one. Here is an overview of those topics.
God Sees Me Perfect
Earthly: I must be perfect to be loved
Eternal: God loves me unconditionally
God Sees Me Confident
Earthly: I can’t think positively about myself
Eternal: I can take every thought captive
God Sees Me Joyful
Earthly: I don’t like trials, I want to be happy
Eternal: God desires that problems draw me closer to Him and He is glorified
God Sees Me
Selfless
Earthly: I must take care of myself because nobody else
will
Eternal: I can be a servant because God will take care of me
God Sees Me Humble
Earthly: I have every right to be proud
Eternal: God is to be praised for working through me
God Sees Me
Wise
Earthly: My image of God says He can’t be trusted
Eternal: I know God in truth because He’s a trustworthy God
God Sees Me Forgiving
Earthly: I want to focus on the past and be bitter
Eternal: I look forward to the future and can forgive
God Sees Me Peaceful
Earthly: There’s so much to worry about because worry
prevents bad things
Eternal: Be at peace and content trusting God