Dallas MOPS Event Promises High-Impact Enrichment for Moms
by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
August 30, 2005
(AgapePress) - Some 5,000 mothers from the U.S., Canada, and other countries will be traveling to Dallas this year for this year's Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) International Convention. The annual event has been held in cities across the U.S. over its 13-year history, but 2005 marks the first time the convention will be held in Texas. The MOPS moms and leaders from around the globe will gather in the Lone Star State for teaching, training, leadership development, and inspiration as well as lots of fun. This "getaway for moms" is a dynamic opportunity for these women to connect with one another, share resources, and gain spiritual insight. That is significant since, as MOPS International president Elisa Morgan notes, "Impacting a mom means impacting a family, and that means impacting the world."
Carol Kuykendall, MOPS International's director of strategic projects, points out that women are uniquely equipped to influence their families' lives, and that there are many things moms can do to help take a good family unit into the realm of greatness. In her book, Five Star Families: Moving Yours from Good to Great, she explains her premise that there are five tools or "stars" involved in creating a cohesive family.
These stars include "love, which meets our greatest needs; fun, which makes us want to spend time together; loyalty, which connects us; growth, which keeps us healthy, and faith, that lights our way home," Kuykendall notes. But of all the "stars" families need to cultivate, she says love is the single most important.
"When children are born," the author points out, "they have no internal source of love. They take in love from the outside. So right away in a family situation, we are learning to love each other; and it's as if children are sponges absorbing this love." And if we are well loved, she adds, "we love others well."
Family love can be expressed through time together and through touch, the MOPS strategic projects director says. But although everyone yearns for love-filled families, she adds, not everyone puts in the time to make that atmosphere happen.
Kuykendall says she wrote Five Star Families book because mothers are so often immersed in getting through the day to day that they forget about planning for the future. Mothers and fathers need to make that effort, she asserts, to help develop the kind of family that will stay together and grow together.
The theme of the 2005 MOPS International Convention, which will take place September 22-24 in Dallas, is "Twinkle ... Shine Like Stars in the Universe." That theme will be reflected in keynote talks from Morgan and from Kuykendall, as well as from best-selling author and Brooklyn Tabernacle pastor Jim Cymbala; internationally known psychologist Dr. Kevin Leman; and popular speakers Lois Evans and Jennifer Rothschild.
New features of the convention this year include talk-show format bonus sessions with popular speakers and late-night showcases. Musical guests scheduled to appear at the 2005 event include Christian music artists Sarah Groves, Al Denson, Mark Schultz, Go Fish, worship leader Kim Hill, and a special appearance by the Dove Award-winning group Out of Eden.
