As an OBU student, witty and warm Ronda Mikles sat on the east side of Raley Chapel near the back, listening to a guest speaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking, \u2018You know what? I would consider my life a success if I were ever invited back to speak at chapel.\u2019 It went on my bucket list right then and there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Of course, she assumed at the time that if that happened, it would be because of her successful career as a school teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought I would be an English teacher,\u201d she said. \u201cNo doubt.\u00a0When I was little, I loved lining up chairs in the living room and pretending to have class.\u00a0In the third grade, I loved reading. I would sit in class and listen to the sound of pages turning all around me.\u00a0It was wonderful!\u201d<\/p>\n
God had other plans in mind. Following her OBU graduation in 1975, she spent just one year in the classroom.\u00a0It was enough.\u00a0Eager to see what else God might have for her, she began an award-winning, 16-year career in radio sales and marketing. She gained confidence in her ability to not only maintain her Christian witness in the secular workplace but to be a light in the darkness.<\/p>\n
During those years, God gave her a vision and desire to launch her own company.\u00a0She founded Mikles Marketing and Management, Inc., 15 years ago and quickly became a sought-after corporate trainer for entities such as OG&E, Devon Energy, and Tinker and Altus Air Force Bases.\u00a0Today, she marvels at God\u2019s wisdom and ability to work all things together according to His plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve come full circle,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cWhat am I doing? I\u2019m teaching again, exactly what God told me to do in the first place, but not in the way I originally pictured.\u00a0This is my calling, and it\u2019s the Lord\u2019s company.\u00a0If I ever stop giving Him credit, I believe the opportunities are going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikles\u2019 company offers training on more than 30 topics such as time management, stress management, team building and the discipline of listening well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the people I meet may never go to a church, and this is my opportunity to show them that someone can live an interesting life and be a Christian.\u00a0I challenge them to become better people, and, of course, being a Christian is a big part of that.\u00a0I always end my conferences with a challenge to go make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikles gleaned much of the methodology she uses from her personal experience as an OBU student, an experience she almost missed out on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in grade school, we would go to the choir festival at OBU.\u00a0It was a big adventure.\u00a0The beauty of the campus, the oval. I fell in love with all of it. But when it came time to decide about college, I didn\u2019t ever consider OBU.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once again, God had other plans for her. With high scores on her ACT, she was offered a four-year scholarship to OBU and enrolled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I knew the Bible pretty well before I went to college.\u00a0It turns out I didn\u2019t know the Bible as well as I thought.\u00a0I had Dr. Dan Holcomb for Old and New Testament.\u00a0I remember he went through the Bible scripture by scripture.\u00a0It enhanced my desire to learn God\u2019s Word, and not just for that class.\u00a0Before that, I could memorize scripture and spit it back out. But this class created a deep love in my heart for truly studying God\u2019s Word and seeing what it has to do with life.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in secular subjects, the professors at OBU didn\u2019t hesitate to throw out their Christian perspective on a topic and then ask us not only what we thought, but why we thought it.\u00a0They pushed us to apply it, to live it.\u00a0Now, I do the same thing in my trainings.\u00a0When I go to these corporations, we always start with the basics, you know, how to communicate, etc.\u00a0Then I ask a lot of questions like \u2018How can you take this material and put it into practice, not just at work, but in your home and social life?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikles and her husband Jody live in Elk City, Oklahoma, where they are heavily involved with the ministry of First Baptist Church.\u00a0Mikles\u2019 experience at OBU informs her interaction with the high school girls Sunday School class she teaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese girls, especially the junior girls in my Sunday school class, have literally become my spiritual daughters.\u00a0I feel compelled to equip them the way I was equipped.\u00a0I tell them that they are going out into the real world soon and need to know not only what they have learned in church or what their parents have taught them, but also why they believe what they believe, so they can stand strong as adults and influence the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2001, Mikles\u2019 dream as a young OBU student was realized and she was invited back to OBU to speak during a chapel service. Although He didn\u2019t bring it about quite the way she had originally imagined, God made her dream a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Other Plans As an OBU student, witty and warm Ronda Mikles sat on the east side of Raley Chapel near the back, listening to a guest speaker. \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018You know what? I would consider my life a success if I were ever invited back to speak at chapel.\u2019 It went on my bucket […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":""},"categories":[130,84],"tags":[168,159],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mikles.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BMz3-wc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1996"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1996\/revisions\/2492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}