We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jenna Ramos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jenna below.
Hi Jenna, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I think my resiliency comes from two things. 15 years in the Army and Illinois National Guard drill just a few things into me. One of them was how to be resilient. The second place I learned resiliency from the Bible. My faith has been a very big part of my journey.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I think the most important things for people to know about me is the work that I and my team are doing with Unspent Love Ministries and my deep desire to see others win the challenge of suffering well. ULM was born out of a deep grief journey my family, and I have been going through for the last four years after the loss of our three-year-old son. Unspent love is best described in the quote by Jamie Anderson where it talks about grief being the love you never got to spend. This year I am focused on getting our story out to people. I want to share our story with the masses. I want to bring Hope to the hopeless and teach others how resiliency isn’t just moving on but rather moving forward. This year I am focused on Booking speaking gigs where I can tell our story and finishing writing a Bible devotional book with my mother-in-law. In this book, we take other believers through a challenge to understand what it is to biblically suffer for the sake of Christ. And everything I do and in everything, I’m trying to teach people I want them to bring the honor and glory to God.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think early on in our grief journey we learned some very key principles that have led my whole family. The biggest one would be how to ride the waves. Grief comes in waves, and the best thing we can do is acknowledge the wave maybe even ride it for a minute, but then allow the wave to ride back out to see as we move forward with our lives back on shore.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
I would say my biggest area of growth in the last year has been learning that my suffering is not in vain. I’m really beginning to embrace the side of grief that allows me to give back. I’ve really been able to see that grief is not a solo sport. I’m getting the chance to champion others as they walk through their grief now. I heard a story the other day about a man who took a trip to Africa. When he got there, he was given a guide for he and his team. This guide knew the land, knew the terrain, knew the animals. This made him an expert in his field. One night they were out walking and their guide grew quickly silent. This was odd as he had been very talkative and willing to converse with this everyone in the group. The guide just said, “sshh.” The group would quickly learn that five or 6 feet in front of them was a herd of lions crossing their path moving through the night. This man told the story that without this champion as their guide, who knows what could’ve happened to that group as they walked through the dark dark night in Africa alone. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned this last year is that I get to be a champion of suffering and teach others what it means to move forward in their pain walking them through some of their darkest nights.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://unspentlove.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthnhopenetwork?igsh=eTZ2cWE2OXd0N2U0&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15wswjziKG/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-ramos-a61911286?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
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