When I first said yes, it was exhilarating.
It felt natural, easy.
After all, how hard can it be to share a story you’ve told a dozen times.
But when I realized this wasn’t a one-time invite, but an invitation to a regular, possibly lifelong series of speaking engagements, I sobered up.
You might wing an interview, but you can’t wing speaking on stage week after week.
I shuddered.
I knew- that what one sees on stage is the fruit of time spent hidden in intimacy with God.
Maybe I could do this once a month, twice, max. It took much more time to prep, to practice, to pray than I thought.
But when the floodgates opened, I realized this wasn’t just something “good to do.”
God had opened the doors, it was an invitation to STEP IN.
Would I?
When I became a new mother, something changed. Suddenly, I had no speaking invites. Even if I did, I often didn’t feel up to it. When I looked around, everyone who spoke regularly was a man. If it was a woman, she was often white, American or both.
After having two girls, something fired up in me.
I decided, I did not want my daughters to grow up without seeing speakers who looked like themselves.
I did not want them to grow up thinking you had to have an English name and look a certain way to earn a place to speak.
I did not want them to grow up with the lies I grew up with- that girls have less to offer, are less valued by God.
So today, I say yes- to interviews, to video shoots, to invites, even though I get jitters, even though it never gets easier.
Because I want them to know- this is a gift you can steward, and give back to the world. 🎁🌎
I almost teared when, in the middle of trying to salvage some dough, my 3-year old said, “I want to be a Mama like you. This is my mike. Preaching.”
For all the times I’ve been told I shouldn’t be speaking on stage because I’m a woman, or too young; for all the stressful interviews, for the critique and tough feedback I will inevitably receive about my theology or dress sense- I have decided- I will do this.
I want you to know- you can do the same, and so much more ❤️