Today’s Story of Failure: Sitting on and breaking my newish pair of sunglasses.

Dr. Rosemarie Downer is a dedicated follower of Christ who aspires to having the closest relationship with Christ possible. Her service in the body of Christ primarily involves teaching and preaching. She also spent well over 30 years serving in youth ministries. Other focus areas in her ministry include women and single adults. As well, she often ministers on issues that address emotional healing and well-being. She counts every opportunity to minister an ultimate privilege from God the Father and does not take it lightly.

She is the founder and former President of BRYDGES (Building Responsible Youth by Delivering Genuine Enrichment Services), over which she functioned as the President for 15 years − 2001 through 2016. She is a published author of The Self-Scarred Church and several parenting handbooks. Additionally, she is the author of a comprehensive ministry development course – Find and Occupy Your Place and the Continuum of Care Youth Ministry Development Handbook.

Dr. Downer served at The U.S. Department of Agriculture as a social science researcher for 20 years and as an adjunct professor at Bowie State University for 24 years. She is now retired from both positions and is currently a private consultant doing grant writing and research and evaluation. In addition, she is doing what she dreamed of doing for years, and that is to write books to edify the body of Christ.

Dr. Downer writes inspirational nonfiction books that are based on the Word of God. Her main reason for writing is to make a permanent record of what our heavenly Father has to say to His people through her pen of a ready writer. Her deepest desire is that the readers’ lives will be transformed as, by faith, they apply the words from the pages of her books.

In today’s episode Dr. Downer talks about:

- first academic book about parenting styles
- first non-fiction book being written in 2009
- having to forgive your offenders
- the mandate of forgiveness
- “Writing is easy, the rest is what’s hard.”
- why it’s never worth telling the story
- skip the story and tell the victory
- her vehicle for healing
- hurt getting in the way of her relationship with the Lord
- obeying the mandate to forgive
- hearing her mother singing at the kitchen sink to God
- crying because she loved the Lord
- asking for Baptism at age 7
- her mom’s strongest message to her
- never being pressured to be married
- when her mom was the proudest
- Evelyn Marshall as a mentor
- Samuel Carson asking her to preach
- on the preaching rotation - first woman not ordained
- “if you can teach, you can preach.”
- a lack of understanding of the scriptures
- distinguishing teaching from preaching
- being a passionate person
- teaching is how deep you go into the concepts
- her latest book, D’s and F’s won’t do
- doubt, distraction, discouragement, depression
- frustration, failure, fear
- the sword to put out the fiery darts against us
- setting the foundation and getting it right
- “We have all failed. Just cut out the pride.”
- failure story when she defended her PHD
- why her mom said she needed to go back to Jamaica so she could feed her
- her pet peeve and why cheapen things
- being an overachiever and perfectionist
- too much data, not enough findings
- not knowing how she drove home that day
- waking up in the middle of the night and figured out a way forward
- failure is not final
- “Failure teaches us lessons…don’t overcomplicate it.”
- don’t give in, don’t give up
- “In order to overcome failure, we must be resilient.”
- failure happens to us, not in us
- how do you handle the failure?
- the driving scenario
- you’re going to hit some potholes, sharp turns, and bad weather
- skipping rocks by myself by the lake
- “Failure is supposed to make us stronger.”
- there are no small failures
- failure is failure
- “Failure does not devalue us.”
- Jesus’ mission
- setting her standards really high
- mediocre is not in her vocabulary
- impact is what we’re aiming at
- why are we overcomplicating it?
- what Dr. Downer does in her down time
- why she loves walking trails
- her favorite travel places
- why she loves Israel
- the deep experience for a believer
- doing more conferences and retreats
- starting her next book
- writing two books a year
- topics coming from prayer
- making sure what she writes is inspired by the Lord
- not wanting to minister out her intellect
- wanting to die empty
- why she believes whenever the word of God is dispense, something should change
- why she wants something supernatural to happen