SAN ANTONIO—Speakers at the inaugural Bloom Conference challenged young Hispanic professional women to grow in their relationship with Christ and fulfill their God-given potential.
Inspired by the success of the Shine Conference for girls, leaders of Union Femenil Misionera de Texas initiated Bloom Conference at Agape Baptist Church in San Antonio to provide a similar event for young professionals.
Keynote speaker Zoricelis Dávila, a Puerto Rico-born Christian counselor and psychotherapist from Fort Worth, urged Christian young women to “bloom” into all God intends for them to be and to reflect Christ.
Dávila emphasized blooming as a gradual and ongoing process.
“Bloom is an active word,” she said. “God is calling you to continue blooming.”
God’s promise to the Old Testament patriarch Abraham, “I will bless you and make you a blessing,” also is God’s plan for every Christian today, she stressed.
Flowers do not choose whether or not to bloom, she noted. Likewise, a Christian cannot choose to bloom only when things are going well and life is not hard, she said.
Women experience difficulties in life, and those challenges cannot be ignored, but
Christians can continue to bloom when life’s hard winds blow by being rooted in Christ, she explained.
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Dávila urged the young Hispanic professional women not to lose focus on the hope Christ gives, even when they don’t feel like it. Often, actions must precede desire—what psychotherapists call “behavioral activation,” she explained.
When people wait until they have a desire or a drive to take action, they are putting the cart before the horse, she said.
Be like Christ and follow him, even when the drive is lacking and the desire is not present, she urged.
A “blooming” Christian—one who reflects the love of God—has the courage and commitment to serve others, Dávila said.
“There is no such thing as knowing Christ and not serving,” she said.
Serving others may sound simple, but service may push Christians to do something scary or intimidating, Dávila said. In those moments of fear and doubt, being rooted in Christ is important, she insisted.
“You must have courage not because of you, but because of the person God is calling you to be,” she said.
God wants young Christian women to continue to discover the new destinations and new wonders he has in store for them, Dávila said.
“There are still new parts of God you have not seen before,” she said.
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