I want to tie together two of my great loves in this blog. My goal is to share how the Master Key Experience (MKE) is exemplified by one of my greatest heroes.
One Great Hero – Gwen Shamblin Lara
Gwen Shamblin Lara, M.S., R.D., was a registered dietician with a master’s degree in food and nutrition. She was a member of the American Dietetic Association with five years of experience working in health departments and then another five years of experience as an instructor of foods and nutrition at the University of Memphis.
When she was in college, Gwen’s love for God, her sudden 20-pound weight gain, and her academic knowledge collided. By studying God’s perfect design and naturally thin eaters, Gwen was permanently set free from being overweight and diets. Soon, people turned to her for help to lose weight.
In 1992, she founded Weigh Down to teach these principles to those who were desperately seeking to lose weight permanently. This teaching quickly began yielding unprecedented results. Participants were not only losing weight while eating regular foods, but they were using the same Bible-based principles to turn away from other addictions such as smoking or alcohol abuse.
Weigh Down
Over the following 30 years, Weigh Down freed thousands from excess weight without dieting or over-exercising. Countless people have been set free not only from the pain of being overweight but also from eating disorders and other addictions. She was eventually coined by the media as the “Pioneer of Faith-Based Weight Loss.” After Gwen’s success, many faith-based programs have been copied, but neither Gwen nor Weigh Down’s success has ever been duplicated.
Gwen was personally involved in all aspects of the development of Weigh Down. After negotiating with agents and printing companies, Gwen eventually founded her own publishing company, Remnant Publishing, which has produced thousands of copies of books, workbooks, audio, and videos.
Gwen was named Christian Business Leader of the Year at Lipscomb University in 1998, saying,“Lipscomb University has chosen Gwen Shamblin, founder, and chief executive officer of Franklin-based Weigh Down Workshop Inc., as Christian Business Leader of the Year for 1998. Calling Shamblin ‘a remarkable lady,’ Lipscomb President Stephen F. Flatt said choosing her for the honor was based on three criteria:
First, her life exemplifies a dedicated and consistent walk with Christ. Second, her business, the Weigh Down Workshop, is more ministry than industry. Third, the phenomenal success of the Weigh Down Workshop is attributable to the direct blessing of God and Gwen’s prudent stewardship of the abilities and talents He has given her.
In addition to managing the international spread of Weigh Down, Gwen established several other businesses. She founded Exodus Industries, a successful construction company in the Nashville, Tennessee, area, which employs dozens of people who work in all areas of construction, contracting, design, and renovation. Gwen was personally involved in all aspects of this business. Gwen also had a real estate business and assisted dozens of others to start their own successful business.
Remnant Fellowship
Feeling led by God, Gwen founded the Remnant Fellowship Church in 1999, which has spread internationally with over one hundred locations across the globe. Gwen was actively involved in all Church activities and founded over 50 service ministries to help the members, including ministries devoted to moving, construction, food, clothing, career, education, events, weddings and so much more. Gwen assisted in counseling thousands of people a year to help with everything from marriage to finances to parenting and career help. Gwen also tirelessly served the Church with twice-weekly sermons, regular fellowship gatherings, many of which she hosted in her home, and many other live assemblies.
Gwen was a dedicated philanthropist, giving a very large percentage of her time, money and resources to help people all over the world to be set free from dependencies and to find a relationship with God.
As a producer, Gwen has recorded literally thousands of hours of materials and written 17 books. She wrote, directed, and produced 19 series for adults and children that come with videos, audio, and workbooks and produced, directed, and recorded over 250 episodes of the You Can Overcome weekly television series. Gwen also recorded over 200 radio episodes and managed and produced hundreds of events, including speaking tours throughout the United States.
Personally, as a hero mentor, she showed me how to apply the words of the bible in my everyday life. There was no small or big thing or situation that I came in contact with or experienced myself that she did not have a scripture or a prayer for.
My Hero
To me, Gwen Shamblin Lara was not only a best-selling author who has helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world. She was a hero, and her writings and teachings are timeless and always gave me what I needed at the right time. That is my humble opinion and my firm belief. She was and still is my hero, and I am grateful to have known her for seven years before she went home to heaven.
She was my hero because it is one of my lifelong dreams to be just like Gwen Shamblin Lara in character, in life, in my relationship with my fellow man and in her obvious love for God. Her capacity to love and to give without expectation of reciprocity is beyond anybody I have ever met.
A hero like her, an epitome of the Proverbs 31 wife, is what I endeavor to be everyday of my life. As the scripture says in Proverbs 31: 10-12 (NIV 1984):
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
She was a hero because her teachings on how to live a Godly life on earth are something to behold and I work daily, hourly even minute per minute to copy her example. Her prayer life was beyond compare. I have never seen a person who prayed as often and as wholeheartedly as she did. I also have never met anyone who gets her prayers answered as definitively as Gwen did.
She was a hero because she exude what 1 Corinthians 13 describe as love. The whole chapter is what it means to truly give without expectation of reciprocity, and I have never met anyone who embodies this scripture more than Gwen Shamblin Lara.
1 Corinthians 13 (NIV1984) – she really is an example of what the whole chapter is about but my favorite section of it: verses 4-8a:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
She was a hero because I also have never met and witnessed anyone who embody and live out not only the Golden Rule but the two Laws that Jesus calls most important as Gwen Shamblin Lara Mark 12:29-31 (NIV1984):
The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second one is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.
Fruits of God’s Spirit
I also have never found anyone like Gwen Shamblin Lara who has all the fruits of God’s Spirit displayed every day of her life on earth. This is why to me she was a hero.
Galatians 5:22-25 (NIV1984) – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belongs to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Gwen Shamblin Lara was a hero because she was the best prayer warrior I have ever met, and I endeavor to be just like her in that manner. Her embodiment of 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-22 (NIV 1984) was so wonderful and beyond delightful to watch and to emulate on a daily basis.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 (NIV 1984): “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophesies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”
All of this and so much more describes how why I call Gwen Shamblin Lara a hero. She helped me and taught me how to live by Faith, as taught at Remnant Fellowship Church. Gwen Shamblin Lara showed me how to put MY FAITH IN ACTION! I can go on and on how Gwen Shamblin Lara’s Hero’s Journey inspires me every day to do better, to be better and to answer the call continually and without fail with total love and humility.
Gwen Shamblin Lara, my hero, is the main reason I find myself thinking on a larger scale and dreaming of changing the world in a more profound way than ever before, not for personal accolades but of helping others and for the impact it can make in this world we live in.
A Call to Action
Connecting to my other love, MKE, as I continue to learn about unsung heroes like Gwen Shamblin Lara and the lives they’ve lived and the examples that they are to all they know and love, I pay better attention to following the way they lived their lives and get the same results and I become more and more like them and get better results daily. I now embrace that life.
There are hundreds of MKE members who are not only winning but living a life of “Bliss” because of what they are learning from the MKE and the skills they are putting into practice daily, yet the best way is; you find it out for yourself by accepting a scholarship into the program.
Are you ready to answer and go on your own hero’s journey? Do you believe that you can be someone else’s hero? Come check it out. It is only available once a year; I promise you will be happy you did.
You can sign up to start the same way I started–with Mindshift you will experience a 7-DAY MENTAL DIET.
I’ll keep in touch with you, sharing other insights when you’re on my email list. And/or go here and get on the waiting list for the scholarship program when it opens up sometime in September. With the 7-DAY MENTAL DIET, you will be prepared for this course.
You are going to be grateful that you did.
Thank you!
