At the 100 Shares Tampa Bay 2026 Spring Awards Luncheon, Board Member Nancy Walker shared how God has used different seasons of her life—and 100 Shares—to lead her into a deeper understanding of Biblical generosity.
For the past three years, I have been praying a simple prayer: “God, use me in this season of my life.”
I was raised a preacher’s kid in a middle-class family with four children—not much money, but a lot of love. Service was part of our family life. I learned to work hard, save, and give my time and talents freely. But we didn’t talk much about money, and I never really learned what it meant to be financially generous in a truly Biblical way.
In my late 20s, I started a marketing and branding company. Eventually my husband joined me, and the business became our livelihood. We experienced years of success, but when the real estate market crashed, everything changed. We lost most of our assets and came frighteningly close to bankruptcy.
I remember being on my knees, crying out to God. We spent the next five years rebuilding, one job and one client at a time. During that season, God taught me something I will never forget:
Everything can slip through your hands—except Him.
Years later, the company was thriving again. As my husband and I began thinking about retirement, I would tell people, “I just want to serve God.”
In God’s timing, we were able to sell our company. After so many years when money had felt scarce, we suddenly entered a season of abundance. That brought a new question: What does God want us to do with what He has given us?
As I began researching Christian nonprofits, I discovered 100 Shares Tampa Bay and attended the annual luncheon. I remember sitting there with tears streaming down my face, thinking, “This is amazing.”
I had found a community of Christian women who believed that everything we have ultimately belongs to God and that together we could use the resources He entrusted to us to advance His Kingdom. Just as importantly, I found a place to learn about Biblical generosity alongside other women.
That experience opened a door. Through 100 Shares, Scripture, Bible studies and Women Doing Well, God began reshaping my heart—from scarcity to abundance, from control to surrender, and from fear to joy.
Perhaps the most freeing lesson has also been the simplest:
It was never my money. It has always been His.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:11, “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.” I am learning that God blesses us not simply so we can hold tighter, but so we can open our hands wider.
I came to this understanding later in life, and sometimes that thought stops me in my tracks:
I could have missed this joy.
I am still learning. But I have discovered tremendous freedom in making life less about what we accomplish, accumulate or control—and more about what God can do through us.
My prayer remains the same:
“Lord, use me.”
Perhaps that is where a life of generosity begins—with open hands and a willingness to ask, “God, what would You have me do with what You have entrusted to me?”
