Giving a sharing is a blessing for you and your audience.
When you are giving a sharing, you are there to inspire your audience on how God transformed your life. Ultimately, the goal is to glorify God.
It is an opportunity for you to be a missionary disciple, to be God's messenger (an angel), and to help others to become holy as the Lord our God is holy. Take this opportunity to be a witness for our Lord.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16
1-2-3. S. H. A. R. E.
At one point in our lives, we will hold the microphone and be inspired to share our personal testimonies in our assemblies. And why not? It is not only fitting that we tell the story of how the Lord is working in our lives. Here are some pointers we should remember:
Pray about the message the Lord wants you to share. Ask the Holy Spirit to inspire you and focus your testimony on that. (e.g., God’s provision for our child’s tuition fees, healing of a sickness, protection against and accident…)
Be mindful of your verbal and non-verbal forms of communication -- for example, choice of uplifting words, positivity, joy in the tone of your voice, your gestures, etc.
Compose your sharing. It helps if you can write it down, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, or a before-during-after structure. Keeping 3 sub points will help you be aware of the time as well.
Remember this is the story of God’s goodness you are telling, so make sure you stand up straight, speak clearly, and smile.
H - Highlight God.
Be sure your sharing is Christ centered, rather than “me” centered .
A - Aim for 5 minutes.
Keep your sharing short and sweet. Usually in our gatherings there are still some more sharers who would want to tell about Christ’s victory in their lives.
R - Relate your own story.
Since what you will be sharing is your personal testimony, please refrain from sharing about the story of another person. Surely, God’s blessings abound in your life so pick one of the many.
E - End with clarity.
Like an airplane coming into an airport, prepare for a good landing, making sure that the message of how God has been good to you resounds and will make those listening to your sharing praise the Lord ever more!
Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
It is important to be pure to be a worthy temple of the Holy Spirit.
Fast and/or offer sacrifices.
This is not limited to food.
Pray
In every preparation session, pray.
Make your entire preparation and the delivery of your sharing a prayer and an offering.
Always give praise and thanks to God.
Before you start preparing, ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Pray for the Holy Spirit to pour on you His Gifts of Knowledge, Wisdom, Prophecy, Discernment, and, most of all, Love.
While preparing or working on your sharing,
Always ask the Lord what message He wants you to give in line with the talk contents.
What are your experiences and/or experiences of others that you can share and give more meaning and life to the talk?
What stories or verses in the Bible can you use?
What stories or quotations from Catholic Saints can you share?
When there are strong emotions, offer them to God and ask for God's help to make your emotions fruitful in the missionary aspect of your sharing.
Discern.
Is this really God's message?
Will the message make your audience holier, more loving, more forgiving, and more Christ-like?
Will the message strengthen their faith?
At the end of your preparation, thank the Lord for His guidance and wisdom.
Practice
Respect the time allocated for your sharing.
Practice giving your sharing.
Identify parts of the sharing which you need to
Spend more time on
Spend less time on
Emphasize
Give good examples for the audience to understand and remember
Time yourself so you know if you need to make adjustments.
End your sharing with a conclusion and action points.
What do your audience need to remember and do after listening to your talk?
What good seed do you plant in the present and future leaders in the community?
And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming. Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:11-16