Shannon's Corner

  The word ‘coach’ brings to most people’s minds that of an athletic coach. Life coaching supports personal and professional growth based on self-initiated change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes, which are linked to personal or professional success that the client defines as success.  It is futured focused.  Where you are now and where do you want to go?  Growth focused.  How do you want to grow?  What does that look like? A coaching relationship is a safe place where collaboration and more of a partnership happens between the coach and client.  The emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, accountability, and follow-through.   Christian Life coaching can be a powerful tool that helps people grow personally, spiritually, and professionally.  Inviting the Holy Spirit into the coaching conversation to be our guide and direct the coaching conversation.  Actively listening to asks direct questions that can be challenging t...

SHANNON’S CORNER The ministry of presence is sometimes discounted of how powerful it can be.  Just our presence, being present even without doing or saying anything is comforting.  How we long for the presence of God being with us when life is hard, challenging, and painful.  God made a way by sending us his Son, Jesus Christ to be our Emmanuel, God with us and as children of God we have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. How often though when someone is grieving, we feel awkward and so we try to fill in that awkwardness by saying or doing things that we think may be helpful but isn’t in the moment. The sacred space that the Lord invites me into to be His conduit of care to His children is humbling.  Recently, I was invited into such a space with a woman who recently lost her spouse in a tragic way.  Spending three hours with her gave her a safe space and permission to share the details of who her spouse was, their life together, a...

We are hurting people.     We of all ages, all experience loss and grief which goes all the way back to the fall of man in Genesis 3 as our relationships were broken with God and with one another.     From the losses we experience, and the way grief impacts us all individually and collectively is so vast and widely different.     And yet, we are hardwired for a relationship with God and with one another as   Yahweh  (the LORD) tells us it is not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). How paradoxical is this statement: We are hurt in relationship, and we are healed in relationship. Grief is intimate because we are whole beings.  Our relational losses cause us to grieve and sometimes to the point of being in a crisis of faith – affecting our relationship with God.  Grief is proportional to intimacy we had with the person(s).   And yet, we have hope as we walk through our journey of grief.   “…the Father of comp...

Summer break has closed with the start of a new school year.  For many in the United States this is a normal transition of life.  How many of our children are changing teachers, classmates, and new buildings or campuses this school year?  Some are going to school for the very first time while others are starting their last year of school.   Transitions are a paradox which Merriam-Webster Dictionary  defines as “A statement that is seemingly self-contradictory or opposed to common sense, and yet it is perhaps true.”  A paradox or a ‘pair ‘o ducks’ (“yay” duck and “yuck” duck) always walk together.  Kids will have a wide range of emotions happening at the same time and at varying times through the transition of beginning school which can take anywhere from two to six weeks.  Each child is impacted differently as they walk through this transition of a new school year.   A great tool to be able to help your child in this transition is using the ...