Today's Guest: Dawn Ward
Breakout Session Leader for MAKING A DIFFERENCE Conference for Women and Girls,
February 28-March 1 (details below)
Proverbs 4:23 (New Living Translation)
"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."
The End of Bullying Begins With Me…and You
“It only takes a spark to get a fire going.”
Did you sing that song as a young girl? Are you a mother who has sung it with your own child?
A single spark can ignite an inferno.
Did you sing that song as a young girl? Are you a mother who has sung it with your own child?
A single spark can ignite an inferno.
How about the old African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child?”
Multiple people. Multiple influences. And while it takes all of them
collectively to raise the child, each one individually wields the power to
shape the person that child becomes.
So, what does this mean for you and me and the fight against bullying?
It means we both hold within us the potential to effect change,
but it will take all of us working together for it to be lasting.
For Further Pondering:
12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.
So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit,
and we all share the same Spirit.
and we all share the same Spirit.
14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.
15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body
because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear?
because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear?
Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.
19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.”
The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care.
So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
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At MAKING A DIFFERNECE, Dawn will be leading THREE Breakout Sessions:
Parent Track: Bullying: God Works All Things Together For Good
Girls Track: (6th-8th grades): Modesty and Bullying: Do They Have Anything In Common?
Girls Track: (9th-12th grades): Dating and Bullying: He Loves You, But Is He a Bully?
Think this would encourage someone else?
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Dawn Ward has been married to the love of her life, Richard, for 21 years. They have one daughter, Rachel, who is 12 (already a teenager if you ask her!). Dawn calls herself “a survivor by God’s grace and mercy” and knows her life is an example of God “working all things together for good...” She is passionate about tween/teen girls finding their identity in who Christ, not the world, says they are. In the past year and a half, God has called her to stand up and speak out against bullying. This fight is borne out of the experiences of her own family when her daughter entered middle school. Her efforts have resulted in the implementation of a brand new program at her daughter’s school. More recently, the formation of a Mayoral committee in the town in which she lives, seeks to spread the program into all the schools in that town and hopefully, to the state and country beyond.
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