In the popular lyrics of contemporary Christian artist Toby Mac’s hit song "Speak Life", he says:

“Speak life to the deadest darkest night. Speak life when the sun won’t shine and you don’t know why. Look into the eyes of the brokenhearted; watch them come alive as soon as you speak hope and you speak LIFE.”

The women and friends of Westminster had the opportunity to listen to the teachings of Pam Caldwell of Birmingham, AL and learn to “speak life” to sisters in faith through her conference, The Unexpected Power of Encouragement. Pam began with speaking about the “old Adam” in all of us that chooses to hide our fear of exposure or “nakedness” to sin. In dealing with that fear, we need the community of believers to hold us accountable and build us up to overcome the fear. Life is hard and we need help to pursue holiness. It will always be a battle that we fight daily, and we need constant help from other believers through Jesus. We must die to self in order to encourage someone else. Just like the seasons of the year, our Christian lives are cyclical. We must constantly die to self and risk exposing ourselves in order to encourage others.

We can set goals for ourselves like improved physical fitness or spiritual fitness, but you can't make that a goal for someone else, you can only desire to see that in the life of another and pray for and encourage them. Ms. Caldwell presented so much useful information, but it basically can be summed up in that we must make a conscious effort everyday; be steeped in the Gospel; and put on the robe of righteousness. Life is hard; that is why we must do it together. Walking as a Christian is a team sport with no real individual events. We must subject ourselves to one another along our walk. (Gal. 6:1-2; Hebrews 12; I Thess. 5:14)