Faith Club

Met with my "outside the church" book club today. The book for this month was The Faith Club by Ranya Idibly, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner. It was written after September 11 by 3 mothers who got together for the purpose of writing a book for children about the connections between Judaism, Christianity, and Judaism. I hadn't finished reading the book because I kept going back and re-reading parts because I would get confused about who was writing, so I don't know if the Children's book was ever written. I just checked on Amazon and didn't see one mentioned.

What was fascinating was the discussion at our table regarding the different rules of different religions, even the different rules within Christian religions - and the logic behind the differences and the rules. There was a lot of pain regarding rules that separated families from their church affiliation. All of us were Christian. And being a person who listens to other table conversations, I wondered if other people were listening to us.

I enjoy being around smart women, especially smart women who read books of all kinds and can discuss them openly. What became even more evident in our discussion is how religion divides people. Religion brings people together in big and important ways, but our beliefs carry a passion that can be difficult to open up and discuss. After all - who is the authority?

As always, I choose to err on the side of love and understanding. The more we can talk to each other, the more we understand.

I am thankful for my faith background. Our next couple of books will not be on religion. Probably a good thing.

"How to Grow Your Business - What You Need to Know and What You Need to Do"

Went to a Houston Coaches meeting last night and hear Karen McCullough speak on the topic in the title of this blog. I have been buying and reading so many books to help with Directive Coaching with the Texas Conference that I have neglected my individual coaching. Time to renew my determination to blog, post, tweet, and web crawl. Here is Karen's amazing website:
http://karenmccullough.com/
She is a high energy, highly motivating speaker.


Today I am preparing to give a talk for the United Methodist Women at the church I attend on the book "How Is It With You Soul?" (on Wednesday, March 11). My soul seems to be on hyperspeed with social media requirements in this new day and age. The titles of the sections of this study are Pray, Learn, Mentor, and Transform. I have spent a lot of time "learning". Now it is time to "pray"!