By Kathy Groom
Founder and President
Prayer Sisters International

Some women handle life better than others. I have friends who micro-manage their calendars, plan regular meals and schedule trips without incident. Others tend to aging parents with grace and provide selfless day-care for their grandchildren to help ease the financial burden from their offspring. There are the entrepreneurs who successfully oversee all the activity of their own businesses and let’s not forget the friends who always remember our birthdays with a thoughtful card in the mail. On time.

Then there are those, like me, who try their best to juggle all the responsibilities of family and career, hoping like crazy that important details don’t fall through the cracks. Like missing the deadline for summer camp registration or inadvertently writing Wednesday on my calendar and keeping my friend waiting at the coffee shop for an hour—on Tuesday. Done that.

Recently I attended a workshop on planning styles. The question was posed, “What system of organization do you use?”

Answers from Type-A personalities popped up around the room: “Outlook, Stephen Covey, Daytimer.”

A kindred spirit chipped in, “Post-it notes!”

I swung around and high-fived the young woman behind me. Hey, we do the best we can to work within our own style of personality, and for whatever reason he deemed necessary, God wired me this way. I need all the external help I can get, because the words “self-discipline and long-term goals” make me shudder.

One thing I’ve learned, however, from among the variety of my friends and family, is that we all need help from others in one way or another. Even my mentor in life, the most gifted, disciplined, godly woman I know, my sister-in-law Rita Hauck, has her own circle of friends that she surrounds herself with for support. Her “Heart Sisters” meet weekly to study the Bible and pray for one another. They’ve been doing that every Thursday morning for thirty years. These girls are my heroes.

We were not meant to walk through life alone. Regardless of our personality or temperament or planning style. God created us each to be a valuable, contributing part of the body of Christ. It was his design from the beginning.

Now, you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. I Corinthians 12:27

Look at it this way. God loves variety. One visit to Hudson Gardens along the Platte River in mid-summer bloom reveals that. So it is with us, girls. We each have something to contribute, a purpose in the bigger plan if you will. My “big-picture” editing abilities add to my friend Shelly’s fastidious grammar skills in our writers group. And my friend and fellow PSI Board member Karla’s detailed calendar helps me keep our plans for Prayer Sisters on track. We each have gifts that help balance and enrich one another’s life.

Okay, so some day my best friend Lindsey and I just might write that book, “Disciplines of a Non-Structured Woman and Other Humorous Stories,” but until then we trod along, thankful for the support and influence of other important women in our lives. We all need each other.