Tuesday, February 19, 2013

*Updated* Most Popular Speaking Topics


Christ in the Totality of Life: Home, Heart, & Humor

HOME:

Julie loves pouring her years of hard fought parenting experience into the lives of parents everywhere. If you're tired of formulaic delivery; weary of cliché' Christian do and don't lists and promises for creating the perfect child (um, there is no such child!) which has left you more than a bit cynical and/or feeling like a parental failure...take heart! Julie brings a much needed dose of honesty, personal struggle and failures, and uncompromising belief that you can find lasting change & joy for your heart and home. Lives and families have been saved both literally and figuratively as a result of Julie's brazen honesty and unapologetic commitment to saying what goes unspoken. 

She's Gonna Blow! Real Help for Moms Dealing with Anger
Real help for moms, as well as foster parents, dads, and caregivers of children, dealing with the rewarding, yet challenging, task of parenting. Julie offers large doses of humor and practical strategies for coping with the big emotions of anger sometimes evoked by the small (and big!) people in your life. You'll appreciate her bold & honest style of communication as you discover lasting and joyful change in your family's life. 
* Mt. Momma 101: What's Your Volcanic Style of Erupting? * Underground Issues Factoring Into Your Frustration & Anger * The Influential Reality of Depression and Why You Needn't Be Ashamed * How to Know When You've Gone Too Far (Recognizing Verbal, Physical, & Spiritual Abuse) * Practical Strategies For A More Peaceful Life

Raising Your Child with Love & Limits
As a mom, you get a lot of advice. TV shows, magazines, friends, your mother (and mother-in-law) are all telling you the best way to raise your kids. But all this well-meaning counsel can paralyze you. Enough already! Unapologetically raucous and refreshingly relevant, Julie gives you 10-non-negotiables to help you stand firm and be the mom. With a sharp wit, she offers a dose of reality and a healthy way to step up and be the mom. 
* Who's the Boss? YOU Are* Say No Like You Mean It * Delight in Your Perfectly Ordinary Child * Humor Me A Little

Confessions of An Imperfect Mother
You can't have Oreos without a glass of cold milk and where would SpongeBob be without Patrick? Alas, some things just go together and all too often (let's say most often, shall we) motherhood is accompanied by the overwhelming, sometimes debilitating, emotion of guilt and second guessing. Julie explores guilt's multiple layers and gives audiences real help leading to grace and freedom. 
* Recognizing What You've Done Right *Distinguishing True Guilt from False Guilt * Living a Relatively Guilt-free Parenting Life


HEART: Helping Spiritually Hungry Women Know & Follow Jesus
Running After Jesus:  No Reserves. No Retreat. No Regret. 
(Best as a 2-4 session event) What would it be like to have your heart, mind, soul, and strength so intent on knowing Jesus and following Him that nothing--no circumstances, no person, no feelings, no fear--could stop you? That's how Jesus taught us to live (Matthew 22:37) and it's the starting place for Julie's challenging, inspiring call to passionate discipleship. To Christian women who hunger for more in their lives, she offers honesty, intensity, a touch of humor, and lots of solid teaching/training. According to Julie, it may be time--way past time, in fact--to get serious about following hard after Jesus. Serious about weeding out sin in our life and standing up to those who may belittle our spiritual intensity. Serious about affirming fundamental truth but being willing to try something fresh. And serious about inviting Christ into the totality of our lives. Julie urges spiritually hungry and spiritually ambitious women to actually do what they're longing to do--to throw themselves into their walk with Jesus. To quit playing games with personal holiness and begin displaying the radiance that comes from following after an irresistible Savior with no reserves, no retreat, and no regret.

Permission to Exhale: It's Time to Admit That Following Jesus Isn't Always Easy
Is there an area (or areas) of your life in which you have no peace? In which you sense no peace? Have you ever faked feeling or sensing such peace when in fact you felt nothing? Have you ever felt undone? frazzled? or perplexed as a Christian? as a woman in search of truth regarding Jesus and who He says He is?  "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Amos 3:5: It's Time to Quit Playing Games with Personal Holiness
An entire session (or weekend!) on the subject of holiness? You betcha. Julie opens up her life and experience regarding dark places of willful sin and God's relentless (and, yes, fearful) pursuit of holiness in her life. Let's consider how God is "set apart" from all other gods--cultural and religious, and examine how we should then live. As we do such, we'll enter into the world of Brave Admissions and identify specific areas in which we are currently struggling and/or refusing to set aside in order to live a life "set apart." Many of us are in fact being held hostage to unholiness--and now is our time to seek God for freedom. But we have to want said freedom. We have to choose to let go of what is killing us. And when we do just that--want and choose--it will be the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit who redeems, restores, and brings dead things to life within us. "Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God--I say this to your shame." ~1 Peter 14:16

Grandma & The Blessed Hope
Did you grow up hearing about or being taught anything regarding the Return of Jesus Christ--i.e. "The Blessed Hope"? If not, how does the subject matter and spiritual reality thereof strike you? Odd? Comforting? Silly? True? There are few prophetic matters of Scripture which Julie enjoys teaching and proclaiming more than: "waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Don't worry! Julie doesn't claim to know the exact date or time. Whew. But she does teach with unapologetic confidence the reality of His return on the day/night God the Father determines. Until then, Julie will cheer men and women everywhere to thoughtfully examine the Scriptures which tell us what lies ahead; to see world events through the "frequency & severity" lens of Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Old Testament books of Ezekiel, Daniel, & Isaiah; and to live every moment expecting to see Him face-to-face. "Now, when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Luke 21:28.  "I will come back." John 14:3

Scandalous Grace
Each one needs a lavish dose of God's scandalous, chartreuse colored, grace! With tender vulnerability and uncompromising challenge, Julie joyfully initiates her listeners to the crazy, unpredictable, and scandalous--that is, the shocking, extreme, and outrageous grace of God toward women. It's for those who aren't perfect, and for those who may feel they are a grave disappointment to God and others due to their weight, lack of talent, mental acuity, sexual mishaps, tarnished past, and stubbornness. Whew! That would cover about anyone and everyone! Scandalous Grace is all about wrapping our minds around the preposterous nature of divine grace, embracing it for ourselves, and then extending it to those around us. "In Him we have redemption, and forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of His grace which He has lavished on us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 1:7

Radical Forgiveness
With her trademark delivery of "practical girlfriend theology" (sass, liberal doses of "been there" honesty, and relentless truth) Julie challenges audience to consider and ACCEPT the atoning power of Divine rescue and absolution. During our time together we’ll consider the following: *Why Forgive? (what's the big deal anyway?) *What Forgiveness Isn't *What Forgiveness Is (as defined by the Master Forgiver) *Who Do I Forgive? *How Do I Forgive the Unforgivable? *What's In It for Me? *What Happens If I Don't? *Speaking Truth  "Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also should forgive." Colossians 3:13

The Fragrance of LIFE 
Has a particular perfume or aromatic fragrance ever sent your heart and mind tumbling back to a specific memory or person? Your first kiss (he was wearing Calvin Klein, Eternity)? Sitting in the kitchen of your grandmother's home while scrumptious scents emanated from a crowded stove top and the gently rising confections within the oven? Ah, the sweet, compelling, effervescent, eternally awakening, power of fragrance! Julie's powerful message will change the hearts and lives of audiences as she boldly teaches and lovingly encourages women to live their lives according to the aromatic truth found in the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians, verses 14 and 15: "Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God . . ." (The Message) 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Happy Eighty-One: Honoring Dad

His height is barely an inch above mine; perhaps not even that now as he celebrates year 
eighty-one of life, but no other man stands taller than Dad in my life.

I Complain, Therefore I Am