What does it mean to wait on God when it feels like it might not be your turn to do the next big thing or lead the next charge? What do we do in the waiting? How do we live and lead well when we’re asked to pause? What should we focus on in the meantime?
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In this conversation, you’ll hear from teacher & leader, Heather Thompson Day. Heather recounts her leadership journey and how she uses that leadership in the college classroom these days. Heather is a faithful professor who is teaching the next generation to communicate more authentically, wait well, and more. She’s passionate about investing in relationships, and how those relationships can lead to a richer and fuller life. Her insights and wisdom are full of depth as she unpacks her thoughts on leadership in higher education and prioritizing the relationships we find ourselves in.
Key Points Discussed:
- All about Heather and her leadership roles
- Heather’s leadership journey
- How Heather realized she was a leader
- The struggle Heather faced as a child leader and how it has shaped her adulthood perspective of leadership
- Heather’s role as a professor and how she leads her students within that role
- The passion Heather has for education and what that passion means for her as a leader
- Leadership lessons that Heather has learned along her leadership journey
- The importance of showing up for each moment of the day with your best self
- What to do when it isn’t ‘your turn’, and you’re waiting for God to show you your next move
- How to live with passion, intentionality, and integrity in our day to day work and life
- Practical ways to change our thought patterns and how that change can impact our life
- How to focus on others when we find ourselves hyper-fixating on the negatives of our life
- Why it is so important for us to prioritize relationships
- What relational resilience is and what it looks like practically
- The restorative power of saying “I’m sorry”
- How social media and texting has had a negative impact on authentic, face to face communication in today’s culture
- How to value the ‘weak ties’ in our life
- How to discern when it may be time to end a relationship and healthy ways to do so
- Heather’s Leaders are Learner’s Suggestions:
- The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
- Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
- The Good Shepherd by Kenneth Baily
- Sermon on the Mount by Amy Jill Levine
Key Quotes from the Episode:
“Leadership, for me personally, has not been something I’ve sought out. It’s been a calling that keeps coming.” – Heather Thompson Day
“We often serve really well in the places that we weren’t served.” – Heather Thompson Day
“If we had some people who were walking with us a few steps, we could really, really take off.” – Holly Cain
“Who you are when it is not your turn is more important than who you are when it is.”- Heather Thompson Day
“God is in need of a generation of people who are showing up to what he has placed in their hands as if it’s the most important thing they’ll ever do, because they know that it matters.”- Heather Thompson Day
“We have to stop thinking about what we’re waiting on and start thinking about what we have right now.” – Heather Thompson Day
“We have to be very careful with the words we say because our brains are listening to us.” – Heather Thompson Day
“You are not your thoughts.” – Heather Thompson Day
“The more we focus on other people, the less our own problems feel like they’re overtaking us. The more we focus on ourselves, the bigger and bigger and bigger our problems become. ” – Heather Thompson Day
“Social media is a tool. It is not supposed to be a substitute for relationship….physiologically, there’s no app for relationship. It doesn’t work like that.” – Heather Thompson Day
“When we honor the image of God and the other person, we honor God Himself.” – Heather Thompson Day
Connect with Heather Thompson Day:
Instagram – @heatherthompsonday
Twitter– @HeatherTDay
Heather’s book: I’ll See You Tomorrow: Building Relational Resilience When You Want to Quit
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Heather Thompson Day is an interdenominational speaker and has been a contributor for Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Newsweek and the Barna Group. She is also the host of Viral Jesus, a new podcast with Christianity Today that has already received over 100k downloads.
Heather is an Associate Professor of Communication at Andrews University. She is passionate about supporting women, and runs an online community called I’m That Wife which has over 260k followers.
Heather’s writing has been featured on outlets like the Today Show, and the National Communication Association. She has been interviewed by BBC Radio Live, and has been featured in Forbes. She believes her calling is to stand in the gaps of our churches for young people.
She is the author of 8 books; including It’s Not Your Turn, and I’ll See You Tomorrow.
She resides in Michigan, with her husband, Seth Day, and their three children, London, Hudson, and Sawyer Day.
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