Hello and Welcome!
I am grateful for this opportunity to share about myself with you. I’ll begin with some basic background information:
Born and raised in Savannah, GA, I’ve also lived in multiple cities across the country throughout my life before rooting myself in Southern California for the last 26 years. In Los Angeles, I got married almost 20 years ago, had our daughter 13 years ago, and began a lifelong engagement in my vocation in women’s ministry. Since I was a teenager, I’ve had a deep passion for developing connection and community among women, probably because I desired friendship, belonging, and had a deep need to be heard and known. Volunteering and ministry have been cornerstones in my life, which are evidenced in my training as a women’s ministry leader beginning in my early 20’s, serving as a Youth Ministry leader at AMS Church, as an ordained Deacon at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, and working as a Certified Christian Spiritual Director and Soul Care Facilitator. That’s a large part of the last 50 years of my life.
Now that some of my basic information has been laid out, I’d like to share my own introduction to Spiritual Direction and Formation.
While Spiritual Direction for many people is just the next step in pursuing a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God, full disclosure, when I started with my first Spiritual Director, I actually wasn’t in the best place spiritually. The heaviness and numbness within me were depressing. My regular “to-do” list of what was “right,” or how I “should” be, or what I “should” do, kept me in a cycle of feeling overwhelmed, not good enough, alone, and behind. I was irritable, temperamental, negative, and insecure.It wasn’t that I had left God. I was still praying, reading my Bible, serving, tithing, going to church, doing all that had usually kept me connected to God, but my soul was asking:
Why can’t I hear you, God?
Are you really with me?
What’s wrong with me?
Do you hear me?
Is it okay that I want more?
Faith was fading.
When I decided to engage in the Spiritual Direction process, I didn’t know what to expect. I was simply hoping. What resulted in the pursuit of my relationship with God through Spiritual Direction was nothing short of miraculous. Something inside of me opened, and it permeated and blossomed in my daily life. My husband even commented on the shift in my way of handling conflict. He noticed an increase in forgiveness, acceptance, and kindness. To say it simply, I connected in a new and profoundly meaningful way with God first, and then to myself, which overflowed to others in my life. God led me back to my heart, and I found Him there. God hadn’t left me. He wasn’t ignoring me. He was pursuing and inviting me into a richer and more mature relationship with him.
Wherever you are in your Christian journey, if you are reading this, you are seeking God. God desires to fill your emptiness, to break through your resistance, to heal your hurts, and to restore your relationships by connecting to you. One of the ways he does this is through Spiritual Direction. The transforming power of God through Spiritual Direction is wondrous.
Spiritual Direction is a safe place to grow in relationship to God, yourself, and others.
He wants to connect with you right now, as you are.
Does this resonate with you?
Is there a stirring in your heart?
Then reach out.
I’d love to be on this journey with you!