Poppy Smith

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Poppy Smith
Travels from: Portland, OR

Categories Include:

  • Women’s Retreats / Conferences / Events
  • Christmas Events
  • Inspirational
  • Mother / Daughter Events
  • Young Moms’ Events
  • Missions Events
  • Senior Adult Events
  • Marriage Conferences / Retreats
  • Business Events
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Inspiring You to Thrive: Spiritually, Emotionally, Relationally.

"Poppy Smith delivers. She understands the issues women face--fears, self-destructive thinking and unhealthy attitudes. With transparency and charge of joy, Poppy inspires her listeners to move forward in life and faith and to keep on growing." ~ Rhonda Rhea, Author 

"Poppy does a fabulous job of speaking God’s word and touching women’s hearts. She is humorous and transparent while challenging listeners. Her use of the Bible to teach practical truth clearly and boldly communicates God’s calling for a holy life. Lives change and hearts soften as she shares about struggles that are common to all. I hope that we can have her come and speak to our women again with her fun, inspirational, and insightful message." ~ Heidi Bolz, Eugene, OR

"You have been such an encouragement to so many ladies in our area alone. The feedback that has come to us ... She was so real ... I could relate to her ... She spoke from her own personal struggles and we could identify with her . . . I could have listened to her for hours . . . Poppy was an inspiration ... If Poppy only came from America for this one meeting, I think it would have been worthwhile as God has changed my life through her message today." ~ Barb D., Australia

"Thank you for such a wonderful weekend. The truth that you shared at our women's retreat was powerful and so relevant for every woman that was able to attend.  Your transparency was refreshing and encouraging. That coupled with the truth from God's Word resulted in a weekend where God was honored and woman were challenged and encouraged and hearts were changed! Thank you for spending time with us. We are thanking God for the way that He used you during our time together!" ~ Julie Bernard, Women's Ministry Director

Poppy Smith's Bio

With her fun personality and inspirational style, Poppy Smith motivates her listeners to thrive spiritually and personally. Poppy makes following God come alive through her practical, how-to presentations.

Using Scripture, humor, and colorful illustrations from her own struggles to be more like Jesus, Poppy encourages women (and men, at times) to grow in every kind of situation—whether joyful or painful!

As a nationally and internationally recognized speaker, Poppy helps audiences across the country and around the world to cultivate a more dynamic walk with God. She is a former Bible Study Fellowship teaching leader and has a Master’s degree in Spiritual Formation and Direction. She has spoken across the United States, in Australia, New Zealand and the U.K., as well as several countries in Africa and Asia. 

Sharing what she learns in compelling and motivating retreats, seminars, workshops, conferences and special events, Poppy helps people to:

  • Discover how to grow through replacing negative emotions and demoralizing self-talk with truth 
  • Identify and replace words that hurt relationships with ones that heal
  • Discern where their choices might lead by looking carefully at potential consequences
  • Persevere by faith in life’s dark passages
  • Overcome unholy habits and discover God’s POWER to grow
  • Understand their spouse is not their clone and how to accept, appreciate and adapt to them

Poppy’s Personal Journey was God’s preparation for her ministry and heart for hurting, struggling, or spiritually hungry women. Born in England to a non-believing family, Poppy grew up there and in Sri Lanka, Singapore and Kenya.  She met her American husband in Nairobi and they soon moved to the United States.  The adjustment to her new marriage and new country, combined with loneliness and the loss of all that was familiar, brought Poppy to a defining moment with God.  The resulting change, from anger to acceptance, from fighting God to seeking Him, led her into a life-long love of Scripture and the One it reveals.
Poppy’s books and Bible studies include: 
  • Reaching Higher: Ten Dynamic Truths from Abraham that will Transform Your Life  
  • I’m Too Human to Be Like Jesus
  • I’m Too Young to Be This Old (bestseller)

Poppy's Bible studies are:
  • Wisdom for Today’s Woman-Insights from Esther
  • Speaking Wisely-Exploring the Power of Words 

Poppy has been published in :
  • Christian Women Today online
  • Interest Magazine
  • Virtue
  • December 2008 issue of Focus on the Family.

~ Featured Presentation ~

Why Can't HE Be More Like ME?

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What do you and your spouse have in common?”
“We got married on the same day.”

Many women can identify with that sentiment. They want their marriages to be happy and honoring to God, but they wonder how when their mate baffles and even irritates them so. Some may even wonder if they made a terrible mistake.

Using Scripture, humor, and colorful illustrations from her own struggles, Poppy Smith offers hope in this upbeat, personal, practical, biblically grounded presentation. Based on her book, Why Can’t He Be More Like Me? will help women analyze areas of marital conflict by reviewing their backgrounds, parenting personalities, expectations, needs, and reactions. This topic can be presented as a single presentation or weekend retreat to provide practical tools to help women learn to accept and enjoy their mate, resulting in a strengthened relationship, better communication, and deeper understanding of each other.

Popular Speaking Topics

Whatever their age or stage of spiritual growth,
these presentations give women hope and invite them to grow!

All retreat, seminar, workshop, special event topics can be adjusted to fit your time requirements

COZY UP TO GOD! 

Most Christians want to feel closer to God but struggle with finding the time. Life is like an over-stuffed suitcase packed to the brim with constant activity. Getting alone with God to listen and relax in His quiet presence can seem an impossible dream. In this unique seminar/retreat designed to give breathing room, Poppy helps you:

  • Overcome feelings of failure and receive God’s warm acceptance of who you are
  • Discover and practice a variety of fresh and fulfilling ways to cozy up to God
  • Develop a plan to nourish the unique person God has created you to be for His glory

DRAW ME CLOSER

Does your heart long to climb higher, to grow closer to God? This is His desire for you, too. Sadly, many Christians live in the valleys of life, struggling with habits and thoughts that rob them of experiencing the comfort and joy of God’s presence. In this life-changing seminar, Poppy shares her journey from the valley to finding POWER to climb, encouragement to persevere when the going gets rough, and the vital role others play in our spiritual progress. These presentations will help you:

  • Identify five key stumbling blocks that keep you in the valley
  • Discover the spiritual P.O.W.E.R.  every climber needs
  • Develop the ability to persevere and overcome the boulders in your way
  • Embrace the support of others as you climb together

CHANGE YOUR THINKING—CHANGE YOUR LIFE!  

What you think can either spur you on to a more fulfilling life in God’s purposes, or stop you in your tracks. Your automatic thoughts, self-talk, and fears can intimidate, control, and ultimately determine what happens in your life. Poppy’s practical and inspiring messages help audiences:

  • Grow from the inside out, moving from self-imposed fears to God-liberating faith
  • Recognize life-affecting crossroads, weighing carefully their possible outcomes
  • View every situation in life as either God’s growing place or Satan’s gotcha place
  • Overcome worry and fear by strengthening their confidence in God’s care for them

SPEAK WISELY, YOUR WORDS HAVE POWER!

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Would you sometimes like to cut off your tongue? Wish you could swallow your words? Someone is always listening, whether it’s your child, spouse, friend, relative, co-worker, or yourself! Words have the power to break hearts and relationships, they also have the power to build up, heal, encourage and be used by God to bless others. These empathetic messages spoken from one woman’s heart to another, enable listeners to:

  • Analyze what’s behind angry words and how to use ones that build, not destroy
  • Get a grip on gossip by understanding what prompts it and what to say instead
  • Discover the powerful dynamics of withholding or giving affirming words
  • Learn new and uplifting words that spouses, children, and others long to hear

LORD, FLIP MY HOUSE!  

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Do you love watching decorating shows on T.V.? Do you marvel at the changes that can happen in the right hands? Have you ever thought that YOU can experience inner changes when Jesus, the Master Builder, starts remodeling YOUR house? 

In this fun, Biblically-based presentation, Poppy gently helps you see what needs removing, restoring, or renovating in your heart, attitudes, words, and self-talk. Using true life illustrations of her own ups and downs, you will laugh, identify, and grow as you discover how Jesus can help you:

  • Recognize and replace the old, ugly stuff stuck on the walls of your heart
  • Overcome attitudes that detract from Jesus’ work in your life
  • Develop sensitivity to using words that create feelings of warmth and safety
  • Build a new basis for your self-talk, enabling you to delight in God and yourself
(Talks drawn from Poppy’s book: I’m Too Human to be Like Jesus.)

WISDOM FOR TODAY’S WOMAN
(Insights from Esther)

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Today’s woman can feel overwhelmed with issues—how should she make decisions, deal with loneliness, improve her marriage, handle unexpected and undesired circumstances? Applying insights from the lives of five people in the book of ESTHER, Poppy helps you discover how to:

  • Overcome emotional reactions and make choices you won’t regret
  • Spark up your marriage with four easy actions
  • Discern whose advice helps you grow, and whose advice needs to go
  • Handle loneliness in God-honoring ways that fulfill your human longings
  • Accept and grow in difficult and undesired circumstances
  • Wait God’s timing and follow His leading
  • Watch for and overcome attitudes that spoil your joy 

REACHING HIGHER
LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM

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Have you ever wondered how to be a successful Christian? After tracing the up’s and downs of ABRAHAM'S relationship with God, you will:

  • Discover the importance, for yourself, of walking in obedience
  • Recognize that knowing and watching your weaknesses helps you grow
  • Identify six common misconceptions about who God is
  • Learn how to wisely handle conflict
  • Develop the ability to wait in faith for God to move in your life 
  • Acquire more insight into what matters most to you

Seminars

Suitable for one-day events for women, couples or singles, and community outreach

FIND YOUR PASSION…and Live It!

Do you wonder what God created you to do? Want to explore and find direction? Do you have desires and dreams but wonder where to go with them? In these practical, inter-active presentations you’ll be challenged to not only see life as your most precious gift, but also as something God wants you to invest for the sake of His kingdom. With insightful questions and thought-provoking exercises, Poppy will enable you to:

  • Dare to dream about what God has for you no matter your age or stage of life
  • Review your experiences, discover your strengths and sources of fulfillment
  • Explore the options your strengths present in order to identify concrete possibilities
  • Anticipate obstacles, both internal and external, so you can work on solutions
  • Move forward, putting together a plan of action to start living your passion 

Sex, Power and Serving God

Sex and Power is a dangerous combination tripping up many Christians working in ministry and the marketplace. Offering fresh and much needed insights into this growing problem, Poppy will help you:

  • Recognize that power can be used and abused by both genders
  • Discover hidden ways both genders attract, and what to watch for in yourself
  • Review your own areas of vulnerability
  • Plan your personal course of action based on your deepest values.
(Suitable for denominational gatherings, Christian leadership and mission conferences, etc.)

Sex and Power in the Workplace

This workshop presents the same helpful information as "Sex, Power and Serving God" tailored to a secular audience. Ideal for HR presentations.                                   

I'm Too Young...to Be This Old!

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Do You Ever:

  • Look in the mirror and wonder what happened?
  • Feel your children are too old to be yours?
  • Puzzle over why your friends are aging prematurely?
  • Secretly brood about your life, wondering if your best years are over?
...If so, you're not alone!

Everyday thousands of women experience the same feelings, ask the same questions, and wonder about the same issues. But, hope and help is at hand.

What you Will Discover
  • Three liberating facts about midlife.
  • How to look in the mirror and smile!
  • How to care for aging parents without guilt.
  • Why you need to free yourself from regrets.
  • How to shed the "I Can't" syndrome and expand your horizons.
  • Insights into who you are, now that you've grown up.
  • Steps to discerning God's unique purpose for you.
  • Eight keys to thriving in the years ahead.

Why Can’t He Be More Like Me?    

In this fun and eye-opening presentation, you will discover reasons why your mate is not like you. In spite of baffling personality traits, differences in upbringing, and unrealized expectations, your relationship can thrive as you learn to analyze, accept, and adapt to one another. (Suitable for women or couples event). 

Single Presentations

Suitable for luncheons and special events.

WHY CAN’T I JUST SAY “NO”? 

Humorous and practical, a talk every woman can relate to!

Ask yourself: Do I run at a dizzying pace? Does my husband or friend sigh when they hear me agreeing to yet another commitment? If you want to put some sanity into your life, schedule Poppy’s fun presentation that will have you identifying, laughing, and learning how to say “no” in order to say “yes” to the life God wants for you.

GIFTS, GIFTS… GLORIOUS GIFT!

(Suitable for Christmas events for women/men)

What has been the best, most exciting gift you’ve ever received? In this fun, talk-around-the table, get to know each other Christmas event, Poppy uses heart-touching and hilarious stories about gifts she has received. Inviting the audience to identify good gifts they have received, this outreach presentation wraps up focusing on the greatest Gift ever offered, the gift of a relationship with the Living God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

WHEN YOU TRIP UP—GET UP!

Everyone trips up—but how do we get up? In her warm and motivational style, Poppy encourages women to:

  • Accept that they are human and tripping up is not fatal!
  • Embrace God’s view of them and flourish emotionally and spiritually
  • Discover how to avoid their personal potholes and stay standing

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!

When work demands all your energy and attention, it's easy to ignore some essential elements of a meaningful life. How much attention do you pay to your physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual health? What value do you give them, measured by the time and attention they receive on a regular basis? As busy leaders, having a Personal Covenant of Care provides a road map to living a life that pays attention to your inner soul, as well as your outer success. Join Poppy as she suggests ways to begin creating your own Covenant of Care. 

GOD’S BEAUTIFUL W.O.M.A.N.

Our culture’s standard of beauty is skinny body, sexy hair, spotless skin, and head-turning good looks. Wonderful as those attributes are, what is God’s idea of a beautiful woman? Could every Christian be a raving beauty in His eyes? YES! In this inspiring presentation, Poppy offers her audience simple steps to becoming God’s beautiful W.O.M.A.N. 

WHO AM I, REALLY?

Do you sometimes wonder who you really are? Does your personality puzzle you? Relax, laugh, and learn as Poppy helps you:

  • Identify your personality and how others see you
  • Uncover the labels you put on yourself
  • Embrace the loving labels God wants you to wear on your heart and mind
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