Maria Ruddiman
About Me
My Background
Education
I am a Certified Trainer and Transformation Coach through the Bethel Coaching CTC program.
Experience
My life experience includes a successful business in sales for 14 years where I was in the top 3% of the company, creating and running yearly training workshops, speaking engagements, managing and training a team of 50+, project management, as well as evaluating, creating and strategizing new systems for a large company. My experiences have helped me become successful in my life coaching career, which I have been doing for 15+ years.
Specialization
As a Certified Transformational Coach, my goal is to create a safe environment where you feel heard, known and seen, resulting in your personal growth or breakthrough. Imagine having space where my only focus is on you; listening, asking powerful questions, giving you support and affirmation, and helping keep you accountable.
My Story
A wedding! It is a moment of excitement for most parents to plan their daughter’s wedding, but for Bob and I, it wasn’t what we wanted for our little girl. This relationship and pending wedding was causing rifts in our family and our daughter withdrew from us more and more. However, she did want us to be involved in the plans and asked me to make her wedding gown, which did keep part of the communication lines open between us.
On this particular day, I had been hand sewing for a few hours on the dress and needed to ask her some questions, as well as plan a time for her to come home to do the final fitting. I picked up the phone, called, and quickly could tell something was wrong. After just a few short sentences, I knew they had been fighting, and I asked if she needed me to call back later. She said, yes. When I hung up the phone, I immediately prayed and said to the Lord, “Break it up, Lord! Break it up!” I didn’t care how much I had spent, or what needed to happen, I just wanted her out of the relationship and thought that if it was bad enough, she’d get out.
In just a split second of reflection, I reminded myself that one of the reasons I had come to ministry school was to learn how to connect with my children better, especially my daughter. In that moment, I wasn’t convinced my thoughts, or my prayers, were best. So, I sat in silence and prayer and asked the Lord, “What should I pray here?” His answer utterly shocked me! “Pray that they reconcile.” “What?! Why should I pray for that?” I cried. His answer was simple, “Because, it is easier to help change someone who is strong, than someone who is broken.”
In His loving kindness, my perspective changed forever! In a matter of seconds, I shifted the way I thought of my daughter, the way I prayed for her, and the way I responded to her. I changed my prayer from “Break it up” to “Bring reconciliation and give them both strength to honor and love one another.” And instead of pleading with God to stop the marriage, I asked Him to strengthen her perspective of herself, give her hope, show her who she is as a woman and help her to make her own decisions, rather than letting others dictate to her what she ought to be or do.
Shifting just one perspective repaired my relationship with my daughter! Being open to shifting perspectives when needed has changed the way I think, respond and view others. It has brought reconciliation to relationships, hope to difficult situations, growth to stuck points in my life, as well as success and increase to my business.