March 22, 2013 ~ Issue 40 ~ “Coming to the Finish Line!”
Hello Friends,
Have you ever started something, a project or a process, that you couldn’t finish due to big interruptions that took weeks and even months before you could pick it up again? My most recent delayed project is marketing the “Making Heart-Level Connections” mini coaching programs. We finished the five live pilot programs last July, and initially I spent two months revamping all the marketing material for the programs to reflect what we actually accomplished with the participants. It needed to be revamped because we didn’t know what we’d be covering in the programs (when we first advertised them) until we read the answers the ladies’ gave us in the questionnaires. I also wanted to prepare a new introductory powerpoint video for the web page, and free downloadables for those who wanted to learn more about the programs. So I had to create two more audios to give away and their accompanying eArticle pdfs. So just on my end, there was a lot of work to do to get the set of programs ready to present to market. But then there was additional work on Barbie’s end to get the powerpoint done, the web pages designed, the links all hooked up, and both of us finalizing so many details.
Well, I was really close to finishing my part of it when my family began the moving process, and so lots of loose ends had to be left hanging. Then after moving I got to spend another few weeks on it in February, recording audios and finishing it up to the extent I could before I needed Barbie’s help. Then Barbie’s family moved, and so we waited some more to get the web pages ready and the material up. But the exciting news is that eight months later, it’s finally ready to present! I’m so excited to have it completed for you! It felt at times like I was plodding through quicksand to get to the finish line with this project. God has been faithful to bring us to the finish line, and we’re really looking forward to helping even more moms achieve relational breakthroughs with the Lord and in their families.
I hope you will go to the web page and check out these personal and specialized programs. You may be wondering how our coaching programs can provide something personal and specialized through pre-recorded audios.
What Makes These Programs Specialized and Personal?
These programs are NOT content or message-driven. Coaching and mentoring need to be intimate to target personal needs. Please allow me to tell you how we created something that could help many people, yet be personal and speak to real needs.
In the spring of 2012, I landed on a beautiful idea to help many people at the same time and still target personal needs. When I talked it over with my partner, Barbie, she thought it was a great idea and wanted to help me implement it right away. We already understood the heart-level processes that are common to all but needed help to identify the primary barriers to growth that are also common to homeschooling moms who have been trying to grow spiritually, make changes, and improve family life but with little progress.
When we launched the live program, 26 moms paid to participate. They liked it so well 24 of them signed up for the subsequent four programs when they became available over the next five months! The moms varied in spiritual maturity and homeschool experience. A few had been walking with the Lord for a while and had victories in the overcoming life, while others were just starting to invite God to do a work in their hearts.
We created a questionnaire and asked them to respond to personal questions in essay form about how they related in their families so we could discover their barriers and stumbling blocks to understanding how inner growth really works. We carefully and prayerfully examined their responses and uncovered 21 primary “disconnects” in their understanding about inner growth. 
We gave these moms actions to take to overcome the wrong thinking that caused dysfunctional behavior, led to broken relationships in their homes, and prevented them from receiving the love of God in their lives. Many of the moms were released toward vital growth in the Lord in a way they had never experienced before, and it began to immediately give them the fruit they desired in their relationships with the Lord, and eventually in their family relationships.
Here’s what Julie said in a conversation with us:
“I felt so out of the loop of this Biblical process that I just was never taught. The more that God unveils that to me and takes the scales off my eyes…then to go through the conscience program and how I had to be honest about my life when I listened to the call and I had to be honest when I read the material and when I was listening to other ladies share and on the page and so forth.
MH: …and in answering the questionnaire, too.
“Yes, and just having to come to grips with my true state, my true sinful nature, and how I’ve been doing life on my own apart from God. I’m just so thankful. It’s not a very joyful thing right now but I’m choosing joy because I know it’s exactly where God wants me to be. What a gift though to be walking this path and walking with the Lord. I just would never be in this place. Being in this place of reality and knowing what life is about now is so freeing even though I have a ways to go, just knowing that His hand is on my life and He cares so deeply about me. Even that I didn’t have knowledge of before. It was a head knowledge, and now I’m walking to it and experiencing it. It’s beautiful and He’s gracious in this process.” ~ Julie E
Barbie and I were often taken by surprise when learning of some of the deceptions that kept these moms stuck in their thinking, stuck in their relational difficulties, and stuck in their growth. Some of the deceptions just sounded like good ideas they thought were supposed to work for them, while others were the direct opposite of how the Lord in His truth actually works. They learned that their ideas aren’t neutral; they have power to influence their growth or lack of growth even unintentionally. We think you’ll be surprised to learn some of these truths too. Actually, many moms have said that what they’ve learned through these programs has been like “the missing piece” to their relationship with the Lord. It has helped them in their own whole-life education, as well as in how to apply Lifestyle of Learning™ ideas in their family.
Here’s what Carlise said after going through only two of the five programs:
“This program helped me connect to what God wants to do in my life and in my relationships in a mighty way. Probably that guilt and self-condemnation that I have been walking in for years— got a little bit of victory and fallen back—never really able to overcome until this program. That stopped me up and kept me back and bound up. I was thinking back through all my years, I would go in and out of depression, loneliness, looking for companionship, looking for people to meet my needs. I know the Lord prepares us for such a time, but the words that were spoken and the individual ministry, hearing what was going on in the other ladies and looking at the notes on the Facebook page that people were posting and the growth they were communicating was just phenomenal. It made me realize and hunger for the need I had in my heart for God in my life, to relate to Him, to love Him, to know Him like He wants, not like I think, or according to the false ideas and standards that I had developed through my life about who He was and what He wanted, what I was supposed to be and do.” ~ Carlise S
You can hear a few more moms share testimonials on the introductory video here
I would love for you to get started right away with the first of our programs “Your Conscience”, but realizing that some of the concepts may be new to you, I’ve provided lots of free content-rich material on the website, so you can make an informed decision with your homeschool budget in mind.
You won’t want to miss listening to the 40” audio I prepared to encourage you. “Your Hope Inspired” presents an idea I want to implant in your mind to influence you toward something good, and strengthen your expectation of obtaining it. And if you’d rather read it, you can download the message in pdf format. It also includes a unique discussion of each of the five God-given forces for growth, which provide the subject content of the five programs in “Making Heart-Level Connections.”
And if that’s not enough to inspire you, I’ve also prepared for you a 56” audio of my own earliest testimonies of how God worked in these five areas of growth in my own life to bring me into a vital relationship with Him. I describe some of my experiences that accomplished powerful changes in me, and the progression of the daily activity of my life that was taking place inbetween times. As I did my best to obey the Lord’s instruction, He brought me and my family into everything we needed to make a whole-life education possible for my family. He has been so good to me, and He wants you to experience His goodness too! This audio is also available in a 14-pg eArticle so you can read it at your convenience.
Again, all four of these inspiring, content rich downloads are my gift to you right now!
Go here to get your free gifts!
Another gift we have just for those who purchase one of the coaching programs is the opportunity to join our private Facebook discussion group, “Making Heart Connections”. It’s an intimate, caring, and loving place to learn how to share about your growth process in the Lord with other moms on the same journey as you. We’ll add you to the facebook page when you purchase any of the “Making Heart Connections” mini coaching programs.
I hope you will join me in this journey of hope!
Marilyn Howshall for Lifestyle of Learning™ Ministries
[Lifestyle of Learning™/LOLACHE eNewsletter ~ March 22, 2013, Issue 40]