On Being Generous With Our Skills and Talents: A Guest Post by Amy L. Sullivan (and a GIVEAWAY!)
There are those who dream and those who do. Amy L. Sullivan is an amazing woman who combined the two and through it a book was born. Amy hits it out of the park with her families' real and often humorous journey from having a life filled with stuff to having
a life filled with purpose. In a warm
and conversational style, Amy provides practical tools to get your family
moving toward a lifestyle of generosity and service. It is rich with story, interactive tools and
useful resources. The book is uplifting
and inspiring without an ounce of guilt pushed our way. Amy will inform your mind, touch your spirit,
inspire your soul and ready your heart to go forth and love in greater ways than you may have imagined.
I am pleased and honored to welcome Amy as she shares on one way to be generous here today:
In What
I Wish For You, Amy D. McCraken tells the story of her young son’s
struggle to come up with a career. After much worry and deliberation, he decides he will work as a dunk tank clown
in the summer and the innocent guy in police line-ups in the winter.
Brilliant.
His mom, Amy, rests in the knowledge that her young boy already embraces the person he is going to be, smart,
creative, and wildly funny.
This story reminds me to stop striving and start embracing.
I work, struggle, hone my skills, and tweak my talents all
in attempt to become who I was made to be. Meanwhile, the girl in the mirror
stares hard and wonders when I will stop spinning and just embrace the terrible car singer, loud belly laugher, endless word
miner I already am.
Recently, I wrote a book about loving others better. http://www.amazon.com/When-More-Not-Enough-Giving/dp/1941103243
In the book, I explore the idea of being generous with
prayer, time, strangers, talents, and forgiveness.
One of my favorite chapters is the chapter about being
generous with our skills and talents. It
is my favorite because it is difficult for me to acknowledge my talents. What? Who me? I have talents? You don’t say?
I have a hunch, acknowledging your talents may be a struggle
for you too, but I will tell you, you have major talent. It’s a fact. Yes, you
do.
Here’s an excerpt:
Look in the mirror.
You possess ease in handling conflict. You excel in the kitchen. Some stare at
a pile of junk mail and see a mess; you stare at the pile and an organization
system forms in your head. Maybe you paint walls, or maybe you paint canvas.
Others may look at a baseball team of ten-year –olds and see a headache; you
look at them and see raw talent. The areas you enjoy are often the areas in
which you excel.
It’s easy for us to see unique skills and talents ooze from
our friends, but to acknowledge we posses talent is much more difficult, and
when it comes to sharing our talents with others, we often shake our heads and
quickly dismiss the gifts God gave us.
Let’s work to battle that.
Let’s start today.
Let’s acknowledge our talents because there is someone out
there waiting to be blessed by the very skill we possess (and yes, I am talking
about you and your mad enchilada making skills!).
Your turn: Tell me
about one of your skills or talents. Go ahead, it’s not bragging.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Because I am so excited about this book, I am going to give away a copy to one of you! To enter just comment below and share with us about one of your skills or talents. Giveaway will end September 30th.
I must also mention that this gal puts here money where her heart is and because of that Amy is contributing ALL of her portion of profits from the sales of this book to Transformation Village which provides housing and job training programs for single women, women veterans, mothers with children and intact families in crisis in Amy's home state of North Carolina.
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11 comments
Amy... Looks like a great book... Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteCarey,
DeleteThanks for reading about the book and taking the time to comment!
Sounds like a wonderful book that I would enjoy. My husband teases me that older folks (older than me at 57) like me and readily talk to me in stores, etc. I will never forget an elderly lady who had written her grocery list in pencil and then was unable to "see" it in the store. She asked me to read it to her and "OLEO" was on the list!!! Long time since I've heard it called Oleo!
ReplyDeleteAll the best with your book.
Thank you for the good wishes, and I'm not going to lie, I just had to look up "OLEO"! Good thing the lady didn't ask me!
DeleteSounds like a good book with a much needed message.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading about the book, Amy! I pray it encourages families.
DeleteThank you so much for introducing Amy to us, Mindy!
ReplyDeleteI love your message, Amy, and living a purposeful life is something I'm always striving towards. Unfortunately, I seem to have a lot of detours along the way but I'll keep trucking.
I have been told that my positive outlook and spirit have made a difference to others. Just yesterday my cousin asked me how I handle a day when I wake up angry at the world. I thought for a minute and I couldn't honestly recall ever feeling that way. It struck me at that moment that I'm very fortunate. I've been able to laugh and comfort others in some pretty difficult times and I'm thankful for that.
And yes, this was difficult to write - but I'm very glad I did! Thank you.
Mindy, what a lovely post honoring Amy and her book. This book sounds very exciting! Such love and compassion Amy has. My heart is blessed.
ReplyDeleteI have a passion for the elderly and would make changes in my own life just to be available for their needs, and they can have many needs, some as simple as a visit to share a cup of tea and fellowship.
Amy is quite the testimony of the love of God in her life.
Sweet blessing to you both.
A beautiful give away you have here, so very kind of you both.
Joy to you! Debbie
I love the vision of the ministry you are supporting. A friend and I are co-directors of a ministry for young women called The Push Ahead. I know it has been a gift from God to me and I think he has been preparing me for it!
ReplyDeleteHi Mindy! Phew! Just got back from blog-break in enough time to enter the giveaway. This book sounds wonderful. I can really relate to the wondering when to stop spinning and embrace who I am. You know, 'more' isn't always better. Being joyful, that's the key.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED the concept of being the innocent guy in the line-up. That really tickled me!
Blessings,
Ceil
This sounds like an awesome book! I love being encouraging to others.Sometimes all someone needs is a smile or just a few words to uplift them for the day. A lot of times something so small can make a huge difference.
ReplyDelete