A Fireside Chat with Rev. Joy Carol
By Jackie Blalock Robinson
“How Bold Are You?”
TM
is the current marketing campaign slogan for the women’s boutique,
Chico’s
. As an avid
Chico’s
shopper, I’ve noticed a more colorful, fun, new look and feel in their boutiques, social media and website now. They’re making the statement: “Women can celebrate fun and be fabulously stylish, and yes, be bold, no matter their age!”
But what does it mean to be a ‘bold’ woman in Christ? How do we live a life that makes a bold statement?
I recently chatted with Rev. Joy Carol, the keynote speaker of the upcoming 45
th
Annual Meeting, about just that…how to be bold! The theme of the meeting,
“Courageous Leadership: Being, Believing, Becoming BOLD!”
Joy, as she preferred to be called, was just returning from taking time away to a quiet place to relax and energize. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
Becoming BOLD
Jackie Blalock Robinson (JBR): In this day and age, what kinds of things can women do to be Bold?
Joy
: I think, number one, we really should get to know ourselves very well…figure out how to get to know ourselves whether that’s in a group, counseling or spending time with ourselves. Then (we should) get to love ourselves. We should feel proud of who we are and the individual gifts that we have whether they’re spiritual, intellectual, physical, or whatever.
We should get to know those gifts and then appreciate them. Then, we get to use them in the world, and we feel confident about doing that. When we are confident, then we can more easily move to that word “BOLD.” If we are not feeling very comfortable with ourselves or not knowing ourselves, then we feel like a fraud. But, if we really feel comfortable about ourselves, then we can move ahead and be bold, courageous, and do good work (for Christ) and be bold about it.
I think it’s not only great to have it (“be bold”) as a theme for a conference being bold is something that we are asked to do. We are almost commanded to do in scripture. I think it’s in Joshua 1:9. ‘Be Bold in your work and in your activities for God and the world’
JBR: My UMW unit works with young girls at a neighborhood school. What are some of the things we can do with them to get them to start thinking about being bold at an earlier age and avoid being put in negative positions as they become adults?
Joy:
It really almost starts when we’re babies. When we are born, we’re put into a world where we are made to wear pink; we don’t wear bold colors.
We’re told we should be good and feminine, gentle and always nice, and never talk back. I’m not saying we should be mean or cruel or anything like that. Being bold means we learn to conquer our fear. And I think that young girls of the world are taught fear…to be afraid of so many things. It’s very difficult for them to learn how to be bold. But I think, when we start with young children, we need to build up their confidence.
We need to compliment them when they do something really well, but so many people, teachers, parents churches are very critical of young girls and don’t really give them a sense of confidence in themselves. I think it really starts way back there when they’re young. So when we’re working with young girls, we want to give them the opportunity to show what are their unique skills or gifts.
Even when I do workshops with aging people, I ask them what is your unique, God-given gift that makes you special So many people tell me, ‘I don’t have any’. I tell them we all have some kind of wonderful skill or gift. We probably have many. We all need to start thinking that gifts could be things like patience, compassion, caring, etc. We need to help people identify their gifts to help them become BOLD.
Jackie Blalock Robinson is a freelance writer who serves on the North Texas Conference UMW Communications Team.
