SPEAKING

When pregnancy hits home, girls and young women need help! How could your life change so fast? Youth wasn’t supposed to be packed with worries and obligations, Lamaze Classes and daycare choices – and you still have work and school! Where did the feeling of inadequacy come from? What happened to fun, friendships and dating? And …what about your needs? Through stories from Tricia’s personal experience as a teenage mom, you will learn the nine basic needs of all young moms: importance, identity, growth, intimacy, instruction, help, recreation, perspective, and hope. You will realize that meeting these needs facilitates your transformation to mother. The content corresponds to her book, Life Interrupted: The Scoop on Being a Young Mom.

When teen pregnancy hits home, young women often find themselves overwhelmed by shame, worries and feelings of inadequacy. Through stories from Tricia’s experience as a teenage mom, you will learn how God transforms pain into purpose. Tricia shares how God turned past regrets into a new purpose for her future … and for the futures of thousands of other young women.

All of us compare. It’s hard not to. We want to be thinner … like her, a better mom … like her, or a more productive person … like her. The first problem is that too often we compare our weaknesses with other people’s strengths. The second problem is that by focusing on our weaknesses we miss out on the things we are divinely designed to do. In this program, you will learn to find your fit in God’s kingdom – and build on your gifts and strengths. You will also learn to relinquish your own expectations and develop a new expectation of what God is doing and will do in your life.

Born to a single mom and missing a father’s love, Tricia became sexually active before her freshman year of high school. By age fifteen, she was pregnant and made the painful choice of abortion. At 17, she was pregnant again, and she dropped out of school … and out of life. It was at that time a woman’s Bible Study group reached out to her, showing her love. Because of these women’s love, Tricia came to know Jesus. Sharing her life story, Tricia teaches that it is possible to leave behind the burden of mistakes and become a whole person surrounded with a sense of possibility, contribution and accomplishment. She encourages women to mentor one another … and believe in ‘her’, so she may believe in herself.

In 2000, Tricia traveled to Austria and toured the Mauthausen concentration camp. Walking through the gates of the camp, her life was forever changed. Tricia shares the stories about the liberation of the camp by American GIs and of those men she canvassed the nation to discover and interview regarding their experiences. Their true stories range from being reunited with a woman one man rescued 60 years before, to the losses of brothers and friends, to the spirit of serving our nation and its people. Depending on the interests of her audiences, she weaves in her research and knowledge from her seven historical novels.

If you are a Gen Xer, your marriage has challenges that no other generation has known. If you are a Boomer…you likely have challenges of your own (or are wondering why your son or daughter does!). Tricia offers realistic help to achieve the marriage you long for. You will learn tips for protecting your marriage, regardless of broken relationships modeled in your youth. You will receive advice from the ultimate marriage guide: the Bible … and practical solutions for creating a marriage that will last.

As a generation of parents aspiring to excellence personally, professionally and at home, you are likely just plain tired. You don’t need another pep talk promising perfection or another formula guaranteeing great kids. You need practical advice that shows how to deal with your children’s hearts and lives – and your own. In this program, Tricia explains how your tendencies to do too much while giving your child every opportunity under the sun are common to the “Gen X” generation. She offers solutions to communicating with your kids, managing your time, and making the decisions that help to ‘get it right’ for them and for you.

Using the metaphor of screenwriting, girls learn that they are in charge of writing the script for their lives. They are the protagonist, and have a supporting cast, but they ultimately make the decisions. Girls are led through an open dialogue of delving into their own inner struggles and outward relationships. They explore their relationships with self, friends, parents, enemies, guys and God. They also learn the importance of “scripting” their own responses BEFORE challenging life-situations arise so they are able to think about, pray about, and consider how to face these situations before the scene begins. By contrasting real-life with TV or movies, teens will understand they don't have to get caught up in the drama.

We all have expectations for our lives, yet in the stretch and squeeze of every day, we are often “smooshed” by constant demands. We become too busy to seek God, and when we do turn to Him it’s often to ask God for what we want. We forget to listen to Him or pay attention to His molding hands. Tricia will teach you how to realize God is at work in many unexpected ways and how to turn your life, dreams, goals, and desires over to His hands. As Tricia has learned in her life story, it’s in God’s hands we will discover more than we asked for or expected!