Women with Vision: Suzanne Chambers
Friends, today I have the joy and privilege of introducing you to yet another incredible woman. The Lord has blessed me with some amazing friendships, and today, you get to meet my dear friend Suzanne. While our friendship is somewhat new (a couple years old), I feel as though we have a history together. Her oldest daughter and I went to school together and had a mutual friend that we were both close to during our time at UGA. Her second daughter and I also share a very dear mutual friend, and her younger two are in the youth group where I serve at church! Each member of her family is dear, but I have had the great joy of getting to know Mrs. Chambers over the past year or so as she has led me in Bible study. Her love of the Lord and His word is unparalleled and truly moving. She is a wonderful wife and mommy, and I am so grateful for her presence in my life. I know you will be encouraged by her words of wisdom.
Tell us about yourself. Who are you?
I am a wife, Mom, teacher, Bible study leader, caregiver to my elderly parents, educational consultant, and mentor to young women. I love sharing my life with others so we can learn from one another and enjoy the process. Mostly, I share my flaws and failures because that’s the easiest to learn from, I think!
How do you define a woman with vision?
Women with vision – wow. I don’t know the answer to that. I admire women (and men) who have great ideas and grand plans to do great things. But I am not one of them. I just strive to focus on taking the next step of obedience, whatever that may be. Perhaps the Lord is protecting me from potential problems that could arise from “dreaming big dreams” – perhaps if I were to do that, I would wind up following my own agenda and seeking to satisfy my own ego rather than seeking His glory. I am not saying that all those who long to do big things have those issues – I just think that might be a potential problem for me. The Enemy isn’t terribly creative – he doesn’t usually let us put our ego to death....he just suggests ways we can make it look spiritual by transferring its satisfaction from the world to the church.
So, all that to say, I guess I don’t have a definition of “women with vision”. My hope would be that we just seek to know God and make Him known in the place He has us right now. If He wants to move us to the next place, that is up to Him. He will make that plain.
What are three things you want the women of our generation to remember?
What do I want this generation of women to remember? The two greatest commandments – Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength. And then love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. And make no mistake about it, we do love ourselves. In spite of all the dogma about self-hatred,we do love ourselves. We go to great lengths to please ourselves, to protect our own well-being (emotional and physical), and to prop up our own esteem. So the lesson I’d love to see us learn? To die to ourselves and live to Christ. And to enjoy every day forever the incomprehensible reality of God’s immeasurable love!
Give us your life verse- the one that always keeps you going.
Wow. One verse? Can’t do it. I will share several that sustain me -
Psalm 84:11 – The Lord God is a sun and shield; He gives grace and glory. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
I Thess 2:13 – And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the Word of God’s message, you accepted it , not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.
Ephesians 3:14-21 – For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on Earth derives its name, that He would grant you , according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit, in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Describe your perfect day- what would you do from sunup to sundown?
My perfect day. Sunup to sundown......hmmmmmmmmmm Well, at sunup, I’d still be asleep! To be able to sleep a little late would be divine. Then I’d wake up at the beach and be able to have a cold TAB on a balcony overlooking the ocean and spend some good time in the Word.
Next, fix a yummy breakfast for my family and then laugh and sing together for a while til we felt like walking on the isolated beach. All my family together. Everyone would be content and sweet, just happy to be together.
The rest of the day would be spend building sandcastles and playing in the water. Maybe riding bikes but not too much. :) Lunch would magically appear as would dinner. That evening we would sit around a campfire on the beach and sing and share and just enjoy one another. As the day came to a close, Jesus would appear in the sky and take us all home! That would be my ideal day!