Speaking Opportunity

God's been providing a few opportunities for me to share my cancer testimony.  A few weeks ago I was asked to speak to a group of ladies about how my illness affected our marriage.  The group was doing a series on marriage and a friend thought it would be great if I could do the "in sickness and in health" portion.  I was honored that she thought of me.  It was very sweet of her to ask.  It was also a lot of fun to participate.  Since the ladies were in Florida and I was in Tennessee we did it over Skype.  They hooked up a laptop to the television.  Here is a picture of me talking.  ;o)

I spent a few hours putting together a testimony of my cancer journey.  It was about 3 pages.  I was given a time-frame of 20-25 minutes.  One morning I read it out loud (by myself) to see how long it was and it was exactly 20 minutes.  :o).  Thank you Tonya for letting me be a part of your ladies group.  :o)

The scripture that I shared was:

Colossians 3:12-17

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him"

The reason I used this scripture is because it had so many verses that explained our journey together.  Kevan had to clothe himself with "compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" as he took care of me.  I know it was hard on him.  We have to forgive each other when we were both tired of the journey or I wasn't feeling well.  We "put on love" for each other and tried to "let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts" when the journey got tough and we weren't sure when things would improve.  We tried to "sing psalms, hymns...with gratitude in our hearts to God" for what He was doing in our life always "giving thanks" to God.  We knew through the journey that this was God's plan and it made it a lot easier to go through knowing God was right there with us.

If I have some time later I might type up a little more about what I spoke about.  But, I wanted to share that it was great opportunity and I was very thankful that Tonya invited me to participate.  Thank you!