As I made my way to the front of the church I asked the Lord for a scripture and Ephesians 4:29 popped into my mind. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (KJV).  I was running out of time. This would have to do.

I gathered the children around me and began to teach. I spoke to the children about how our words needed to be kind and loving, building up those around us. As I finished one little girl stood up, turned to the congregation and said,

“What she means is, our words should be like a little silver box with a bow on top.”

I knew this message was a keeper.

I have shared the story of this message of “Silver Boxes” hundreds of times with thousands of people reminding them of the weight of our words. Often following my presentation someone will come to me and remark, “The words I say to my husband, to my children, to others, are not very nice. I need to do some things differently.” This message has changed lives, saved marriages and encouraged many a wayward young person.

We all have a story to share, a message to impart. Often it is a story that can reach deep into a broken heart to offer hope. Sometimes a story will point a person in the right direction or redirect their thinking.

Writers and speakers need encouragement as well. They need to hear that they are on the right path and that their words matter. My “Silver Box” story ends with a quote attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Don’t die with the music still in you.” We can change it slightly, and encourage you, “Don’t die with the story still in you.” Our stories can shape the future if we have the courage to share them.

Florence Littauer is the bestselling author of Silver Boxes, The Gift of Encouragement  and over 30 other books. An internationally recognized speaker, she is the founder of the CLASSEMINARS and resides in Henderson, NV.

Gerry Wakeland is the President of CLASSEMINARS, Inc., a ministry that trains Christian communicators. She loves encouraging men and women to share the message God has given them. The mother of two grown daughters and grandmother of three active boys, Gerry lives in Albuquerque, NM.

Join Florence Littauer in Palm Springs, CA this April to celebrate her 84th birthday at the 2012 CLASS Reunion.

More more information, visit the CLASSEMINARS, Inc. website to pick up your personal invitation.

My love affair with books and the library began as a child and continues to this very day. I remember as an elementary student begging my mother to take me to the library. She’d pull up to the curb in front and let me out, reminding me she would be back in an hour. Every time, I’d race up three sets of steps, fling open the double doors, run inside and stop. I would stand perfectly still and inhale the fragrance of the books. True love.

The library was my refuge. It provided a safe and silent haven from the noise and chaos of my home. But more than that, it opened doors for me, doors to the past, doors to the future, doors of adventure, and doors of romance, most importantly doors of wisdom.

I learned so much at the library. I learned that as a woman I could be brave and bold like Amelia Earhart or save lives like Florence Nightingale or Clara Barton. I could write poetry like Elizabeth Barrett Browning or books like Jane Austen. The library gave me hope!

Over the years I have continued to be a library patron. Sometimes I take my laptop and head to the library to work on a project. With the world at my fingertips, both digitally and in hard copy, I can research any topic to my heart’s content. Hardly a Saturday goes by that you cannot find me at some point in the day at the local library, perusing the new arrivals for the week.

Or sometimes I just sit quietly in one of the easy chairs wishing that the books could talk and wondering what they would say if they could tell the stories behind the stories.

I may never have the unusual, almost bizarre, home of my dreams. But the library is still my refuge, affording me a place that’s safe and silent, where dreams are born and hope exists.

Gerry Wakeland is the President and CEO of CLASSEMINARS, Inc. She loves helping Christian communicators identify their passion, clarify their vision and define their mission so that they can articulate God’s message effectively. Gerry is the mother of two grown daughters and grandmother to three precious grandsons. She makes her home in the land of enchantment, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her favorite pastime is reading and one of her favorite places is the public library. In March, the CLASS website will release news of the 2012 Christian Writers Conference: www.classeminars.org. Come meet Gerry and the rest of the CLASS faculty there!

More questions were raised when I attended college and discovered that I was very comfortable dealing with people when I had a purpose, but still fought those old biases in social settings. I described myself as shy, but that didn’t feel right. Many years later I finally understood what was going on thanks to Florence Littauer and The Personalities.

A New Understanding

A whole new world opened up for me when I discovered that my dominant personality was the introverted phlegmatic. No wonder I preferred the company of one friend over the boisterous offerings of a party pulsing with people. Not only that, but I also discovered that the extroverted sanguine was my secondary personality! That explained why I was perfectly happy working with people when I had a reason . . . sanguine personalities love people.

So, how do the other personalities deal with people and social settings?

• Sanguine – As I mention, they are extroverts who love people. They also love fun, so they are naturals when it comes to social settings. They love any kind of social gathering and are energized by people.
• Choleric – Choleric personalities also fall into the extrovert category. They are not drained by people like the introverted phlegmatic, but they often prefer leading people to accomplish things instead of just hanging out socially.
• Melancholy – When it comes to people, melancholy personalities are a lot like the phlegmatic. They, too, are introverted and tend to prefer solitude over social settings. The melancholy personality is energized by quiet and drained by people.

I felt like a new person. I embraced my quiet side, and discovered that I wasn’t shy. Even though I enjoy people, situations involving a lot people drained me. It was a new beginning for me because I learned strategies to nurture my phlegmatic/sanguine personality blend. Knowing that I could easily become a hermit, I built social time into my schedule . . . I play BUNCO once a month. It feeds my need for people without overwhelming my phlegmatic side.

Who Are You?

What The Personalities has done in my life is not unusual. I have heard countless stories of how this knowledge has empowered people to embrace themselves.  Some stories are similar to mine, and others are much more dramatic. But, in all cases, The Personalities have allowed tortured souls like me to start life from a new and more comfortable place.

Shona is a personality mechanic who provides tools to tune up people’s relationships. She is on faculty with CLASS and is an active blogger. You can visit her personality blog at www.shonaneff.com.

Shona is at home in northern New Mexico with her husband and trio of terriers. In addition to her writing, speaking, and consulting, she loves her volunteer work at the local crisis pregnancy center.

February 9th is "Read in the Bathtub" Day

For years the bathtub has provided my favorite literary getaway. Preparation for bath time means gathering the essentials: a glass of cold water, one towel for drying, a small one for drying hands occasionally, a flashlight, eyeglasses (a fairly recent addition to the list), and a good book.

You may not be a bathtub reader but finding a daily time for yourself is important and reading enhances that special, individual time. Making the effort to have personal time each day has great benefits.

1. Keeps you grounded. The best way to start every day is with a personal time of devotion. Making a connection with God when you first get up gives you a solid foundation for the day. This time may include Bible reading, your favorite devotional book, and a time of meditation and prayer.
2. Recharges your “batteries.” We were not created to go and go and go. We need a break. Life is busy if not frantic for most of us and burnout lurks just around the corner. A few minutes away from the family, workplace, and the demands that go along with them gives you new strength, energy, and perspective to face your day.
3. Provides a time for enjoyment. Everyone needs to have a little fun every day. Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. So relaxing with a good book, whether in the bathtub, under a tree, or wrapped in a blanket in the recliner gives me a few minutes of enjoyment and entertainment.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Linda Gilden is an author, speaker, editor, and writing coach. She has written hundreds of articles as well as the Love Notes series, Mommy Pick-Me-Ups, and has ghostwritten or contributed to over three dozen books. Directing the CLASS Christian Writers Conference in Abiquiu, NM, she encourages others to clearly communicate God’s love to the world. Linda lives in SC with her family – a great source of speaking and writing material!

In March, the CLASS website will release news of the 2012 Christian Writers Conference: www.classeminars.org. Come meet Linda and the rest of the CLASS faculty there!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H

to dream the dreams God has for us.

To turn dreams into goals, we have to wake up the procrastinator. With just a little bit of planning, you can accomplish the goals God has for your life. You were created by God to influence others for His glory and for their good.

• Set a realistic but challenging or inspiring goal. Make the goal big enough to excite you. Divide bigger goals into smaller steps so you aren’t overwhelmed.
• Plan ahead. Keep a record of it on your computer or in a journal. Give yourself deadlines for each step. Otherwise, procrastination might get the best of you.
• Brainstorm ideas. Wade through some silly ideas to mine the good nuggets.
• Be passionate. Striving towards a goal without passion is like a fire which slowly runs out of fuel to burn. Get excited; this will only work if you love what you’re doing.
• Revisit and evaluate your goals. Keep a record of your progress and make adjustments.
• Consider new opportunities and options that come your way.
• Ask God to show you what goals to set, and then ask Him to show you what you can do today to get one step closer to you goals. Stay focused and believe in yourself even if others don’t.

Let’s get specific. You know your purpose, you know your mission, and now you must figure out a plan to get the word out.

5 Marketing Goals to Get You Started:

1. Set aside time to brainstorm. Be intentional to do something different in 2012. Don’t allow the ever-pressing deadlines and pressures of life distract you from adding new deliberate actions.

2. Identify your target audience. Learn the demographics for your designated people group. What do they watch, read, buy, respect? This will assure you meet their perceived needs when you reach out to them.

3. Plan a new way to connect with your target audience. Ideas to get you started: e-newsletter, social networking, blogging, guest blogging, article placement, online discussion groups, and tip sheets.

4. Revamp your mailing lists to bring them up to date. You don’t want your hard work to bounce back from wrong or old contact information.

5. Make a daily schedule that works toward your goals. If you schedule time to work your plan, it will be a dream come true rather than a wish upon a star.

Kathy serves as publicist, author and coach. She shines, whether she’s shining the light on her clients, or reflecting God’s light during her speaking engagements to women and writers. Visit www.kathycarltonwillis.com and “like” Kathy Carlton Willis Communications on Facebook.

I would like to challenge this pattern.

Rather than ushering in beginnings, I suggest we consider what we need to stop doing.

Leaders, who are often gifted with visions and creating new opportunities, endings can present a much greater challenge.

Consider the rose bush covered with buds, each with the potential to develop into a fragrance-filled flower. The bush, capable of producing an abundance of buds, is unable to nurture all of those buds into maturity. Fully bloomed flowers will only be produced when some of the buds are pruned, allowing the plant’s limited resources to be channelled into a few.

Dr. Henry Cloud uses this analogy to introduce the necessity for leaders to be competent at endings in his book, Necessary Endings. Just as the bush cannot sustain all the buds it produces, neither are leaders capable of nurturing all of their great ideas to fruition. The best leaders become adept at pruning.

Pruning is easier when projects have come to a natural death or are unhealthy in some fashion. Pruning is more difficult and yet so critical when an idea is good, but just not the best. Cutting away a bud, full of potential, seems counter-productive unless we are willing to see the long-term vision. Being willing to stop a routine, give up a ministry, or pass on unread books will give our lives space and energy to flow into the most important areas of our lives.

Jesus taught this principle when He conveyed that we come alive when we, as a branch, remain attached to the Vine. He described the necessity of pruning so that more fruit will come forth. In John 15:2, Jesus said,

He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and He prunes every branch that does bear fruit so that it will be clean and bear more fruit (TEV).

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, promotes replacing our “To-Do List” with a “Stop-doing List.” To enact this we must take a serious look at all the buds in our lives and make some hard choices about what needs to be pruned. On the jacket cover of Necessary Endings, Henry Cloud emphasizes that “[i]f we cannot see endings in a positive light and execute them, the ‘better’ will never come either in business growth or our personal lives.” Ruthless pruning will not only create freedom and space, it will produce energy and drive to see the best in our lives reach their full potential.

What are you going to stop doing in 2012?

Award-winning author, speaker, corporate trainer, and spiritual director, Rosemary Flaaten, M.A., B.Ed., is the founder of Professional Women’s Network, providing small group Bible studies for working women.She is the author of A Woman and Her Workplace: Building Healthy Relationships 9-5 (Beacon Hill).

To measure weight loss, I have a scale (hate it!). To measure money saved, I have a ledger (love it!). To measure writing success, I have word counts and rejection letters (don’t you?). Spiritual growth is another matter.

I wish I had a scale, or a ledger, or some other means of measurement for this goal. I want to know if I’m on the right track, but growing in Christ is not quantitative. It’s not the kind of thing that offers simple evaluation or easy assessment. I wish I could just stand next to God’s doorframe and let him mark off each inch of progress. But it’s more complicated.

We often jump to fruit–the produce of God’s garden in us–as the measurement, and that’s a start. “By their fruit you shall know them” is a mantra of evaluation that provides some evidence-based methodology to the process. If I plant a tree, and the tree bears fruit, I know it’s a success. So, if I bear fruit as a Christian, I’ll know I’m meeting my goal. Easy-peasy.

Yeah. So, fruit, as in . . . ?  Spiritual character (Galatians 5:22-23)? Good works? Getting people saved?

When Jesus talks fruit, surrounded by his closest friends and preparing to die through the most definitive experience in all of history, it comes down to one thing: intimacy. In this tilting moment, this branding of a movement, the most important thing to Jesus is that His dear companions pursue deep relationship. Of all the goals, objectives, and resolutions Jesus would want for his followers to achieve, only this one desire is on his mind.

Jesus’ words must frame my own goals.

It’s not spiritual character I want. I want to abide in him.

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

It’s not good works I’m after, it’s a relationship like no other.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

It’s not a list of people who’ve said yes that counts, it’s me saying yes to him.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ”

Do I want to exhibit strong character? With all my heart.

Do I aspire to do good things? More than you can know.

Do I long to see people redeemed wholly by grace? It burns in me.

The only way—only way at all—to see these dreams come true is to stick close with Jesus.

How is intimacy evaluated? Here are some questions that will help:

• Intimacy is honest. Have I opened myself completely to Jesus? Am I hiding anything?
• Intimacy is generous. Have I reserved anything from Jesus? Does he have all?
• Intimacy is raw communication. Do I pray with abandon? Am I conscious of his presence?

You can’t measure relationship on a scale or a yardstick. It’s measured by proximity of the heart. Here’s a two-word goal for this year: get closer.

A pastor who also writes, Ron Benson serves Grace Christian Fellowship in Bay City, Michigan,and is faculty member of the CLASS Christian Writers Conference. He loves life and wants to live it better.

Our Priority Is Prayer

God has called us to place a priority on prayer. When we look around us we can see our world is filled with challenges. Our country is in crisis. There is a crisis in our economy, a crisis in our environment, and a crisis in our leadership. We believe that as Christians we need, now more than ever before, to be in prayer for our country and our world.

We also need to be in prayer for our churches and the ministries we support and are involved in. This includes CLASSEMINARS. And we need to be in prayer for our families, our loved ones, and each other. For this reason we will be introducing a new prayer plan in 2012. Watch the website and upcoming newsletters for more information or to get involved, contact the CLASS Prayer Coordinator, Evelyn Davison, by email evelyndavidson [at] gmail [dot] com.

TEAMWORK

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” ~~Helen Keller

If anyone could have done it all and done it alone, it would have been Jesus Christ. Instead He chose twelve of the most unlikely men in history to lead and disciple. These men, each with individual gifting and unique personalities made an incredible impact on our world.

We believe that this is how Christ meant for ministry to work, in concert with others, each of us bringing our wisdom, experience, gifting, and personality to the table to fulfill the plan God has for us.

For this reason we have chosen to focus on teamwork this year. You will see this modeled in many ways. You will see it in our new faculty teams at our seminars. You will see it in the Career Coaching at the CLASS Reunion. You will see it in the new publications that will be introduced in 2012. Hopefully, you will see it in all we say and do at CLASS this year. We invite you to join us on this journey, being part of the CLASS Team. For we really believe that, Together Everyone Achieves More!

2012 Scripture Focus

At the beginning of each year we choose a passage of scripture to focus on for the year. The 2012 scripture is found in 1 Corinthians 12 (NIV).  This passage of scripture not only speaks to the different gifts we receive, it also addresses that while we are part of one body, we each have an individual responsibility in that body. This is all about teamwork. It takes us all, every one, to help CLASS accomplish the plans God has for us. We hope that you will take on the challenge that is given to the CLASS faculty each year, not only to memorize this scripture but to live it out in their lives.

One of those changes is the New Advanced Personality Training that was introduced in June 2011.  This program provides additional in-depth training on the personalities.

Advanced Personality Training includes:

• Personalities and the Brain
• Learned Behavior (formerly referred to as masking)
• Psychology of The Personalities
• Mental Health Issues and How They Affect the Personality
• Personalities in the Workplace
• Ethical and Legal Issues

Attendees will be challenged by actual case studies and interactive exercises allowing them to use their knowledge of The Personalities in coaching scenarios and problem solving.

This two-day seminar offers you the opportunity achieve life-time certification.

As an added bonus you may attend a third day consisting of Personality-Based Marketing that will help you create a marketing plan that will work for you and your personality.

Plan now to attend one of the New Advanced Personality Trainings in 2012.

Class size limited to twelve participants. You must be a Certified Personality Trainer to attend.

2012 Dates and Locations

May 21 – 23                             Houston, TX

June 25 – 27                            Raleigh, NC

September 10 – 12                  Ontario, CA

“Personality training was fun and informative, but advanced took it to a whole new level.” ~~Shona Neff

The Advanced Personality Training has opened many doors for my professional writing and speaking career. I found the scientific data presented by Betsy Jabola, RN, BSN, and the clinical examples provided by John Thurman, LPC, to be particularly helpful.” ~~Lawrence Clark

For more information visit our website.

Shonda Savage Whitworth, Media Manager

CLASSEMINARS, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Shonda Savage Whitworth to the position of Media Manager. For the past two years Shonda has served as the Associate Editor for the CLASS Communiqué. Working under the supervision of Director of Communications, Tama Westman, Shonda has helped develop the Communiqué into the outstanding publication it is today.

It is with sadness that the CLASS Leadership Team recently accepted Tama Westman’s resignation as CLASS Director of Communications. At the 2011 CLASS Christian Writers Conference, Tama caught a new dream and has a new vision.  As a result, Tama has new goals that require a greater investment of her time.

In 2007, Tama tackled the staggering task of the CLASS Communiqué by taking it from a quarterly newspaper format that focused on promoting CLASS products and events to a high quality e-newsletter that provided benefit driven information for the reader.

In 2009, Tama was appointed as CLASS Director of Communications and her role expanded as she partnered with our Marketing Team to create many of the marketing tools that we continue to use today.  She has also been a key player in the development of many of our programs.

As Tama pursues her new dreams and goals, we want to thank her for the selfless investment she made  as CLASS Director of Communications. We wish her all the success she deserves. And Tama, all your CLASSmates will be watching for that novel, so get busy!

Be sure to look for Tama at the 2012 CLASS Christian Writers Conference. If want to send Tama a personal note, email her at tamajoy [at] gmail [dot] com.

With Tama’s departure, Shonda has stepped up to oversee the production of the Communiqué, as well as assume responsibility for the CLASSEMINARS, Inc. website, blog, and more. Join us in congratulating Shonda in her new role.