What Role Does Your Faith Play? My Panel with the Mayor of Tampa!

Last week I spoke on a three-person panel celebrating the anniversary of an organization of South Tampa Working Moms.

Before this panel, I would not have said what I had in common with Mayor Jane Castor was that were working moms from day one of our children’s births. Mayor Castor was a “boy mom”, after adopting two infants, very close in age and I was a “girl mom” with my daughters only 17 months in age from each other.

This discussion took me back to recalling the tools and strategies I employed from my time as a Tech CEO in Seattle to my current role as a founding partner of NOW Publishing & Promotion, in Tampa.

The tools I remember were items like plastic study desks in the back seat of my SUV. Regular bedtimes, healthy food, limited & and monitored screen time if any. Paying for subscriptions to book clubs and regular trips to Barnes and Noble and the Library to keep my girls reading. Also, music lessons, dance lessons, swim team, and more provided my girls a general understanding of what they might be capable of doing and enjoying in their lives.

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The strategy, is completely unknown to them. It was to give them love. To act as their coach and mentor as they moved from lower school to middle and then to high school. I realized early on that my motherhood style would dictate the way they moved through the world. My daughters would emulate my behavior good, bad, or otherwise. I knew instinctively that a peaceful morning, followed by a mostly peaceful drive to school would most likely help produce a peaceful school day for them.

I came to a place in my motherhood journey, ?where I really needed to “net it out” in terms of identifying the MOST important life lessons I wanted to teach them, before that fateful day when they went away to University and I pushed my eaglets out of the nest.

My realization was this, first and foremost my motherhood needed to make it inexplicably clear that I am ALWAYS in their corner. This unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness has not been tested yet from my perspective, but I had to show them in many ways that I’m at least the one person they can count on no matter what. I’m always in their corner throughout their entire life. ?

?Second, I wanted to ensure the shape of their character was not always centered on themselves This was a little tricky as they moved through the teenage years, of self-discovery and self-defining mindsets. What I could offer to them was constant reminders demonstrating how important it was to see others and to help take care of their needs. This included simple things like kindness to their sibling, understanding perspectives of a harmful action from a friend, but mostly a general gratefulness of understanding how much our family had to be grateful for and not giving a thought to what we didn’t have.

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After all, how much does a person really need if their basic needs are covered daily? Most adults also understand that comparison to others is never a good idea and can only lead down a dark path. ?I believe my daughters know what a servant's heart is and I hope they understand having one is paramount for their future happiness.

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Last, and this item came up after this event as many of the working mothers thanked me for my remarks in speaking about my strength in motherhood resulting from my faith.

I know my daughters know my faith. They know I believe there is only ONE thing you can count on and it is not from this world. The only thing that moves me is my faith, trust, and, gratefulness to God. These working moms, most very young with very young children were doing amazing things in the workplace, all of it I imagine without proper sleep if any, and without adequate support, if that exists and yet they were eager to learn to be better moms and better professionals, all the while yearning for that “secret sauce”.

To conclude, my secret sauce as a full-time working mom now for 18 years as I pushed my oldest daughter out of the Eagles nest less than two months ago, is to ask God daily to help! Use His power and the wisdom He has waiting for you. He wants you to petition Him with your needs. Rely on no one on this earth, rely on Him, and the Helper (holy spirit) and it will become very clear His guidance to help you in all ways!

What role does your faith have in your life's work? Does it lead you daily whether you are a working mother, working father, or anyone trying to make it through these challenging times?

Liza Marie Garcia , Full-Time Working Mom of a 1st Year University Student

and a High School Senior.

[email protected]

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