A couple months ago, I sent copies of “You’re Already Amazing LifeGrowth Guide” to our community of truly phenomenal women. It might seem like a strange pick (these women already have it all together, right?) but it doesn’t matter how long I’ve been in ministry or leadership or life, for that matter, but I still sometimes wonder if my gifts, talents, and offerings are enough. I also wonder if my personality and the way I’m wired is just too much. It’s hard to see how amazing we are when we’re surrounded by people who seem just a bit more thin/smart/talented/beautiful/capable/insert-other-amazing-quality-here.
Honestly, though, when I look at my friends, I see how amazing they are, and have a hard time understanding why they’d ever think they’re not.
I stand in awe of these women around me who juggle so many things, who make courageous choices, who face fears, who take risks, who sometimes just put one foot in front of the other in faith that everything will work out. I see that they’re incredible, but if you asked any one of them, they’d all likely say that they’re lucky to have slid in under the bar of critical self-measurement. They often say they’re not pretty or smart enough, that their families aren’t perfect enough, their houses aren’t clean enough, that they don’t have much to offer, that answers are just too far out of reach and that others have got it far more together than they do. I don’t think one of them would self-identify as amazing. (Putting on the mantle of Amazing feels a bit strange, doesn’t it?)
Mercy. We’re hard on ourselves, aren’t we?
And this rejection of amazing? It hobbles us, friends.
These are the things I want my daughter to know. I want her to know that she has been intentionally, fearfully, and wonderfully made with unique passion, personality, and gifts, for a great purpose. I want her to identify her gifts not so that she can be puffed up, but so that she can pour out and be filled. I want her to frame the central themes of her life so that she can choose where to step in, and step up to be where God is calling her. I want the precious daughter of my heart to know that she should not be limited by gender or situation, because she is, a simply miraculous creation of the Divine. I want her to know that without doing one thing, she is already amazing. My daughter is fortunate to have Auntie Holley in her life, already cheering her on, and other beautiful women who lead to look up to.
Isn’t that enough?
Not really, is it? She needs to know, deep down, personally, how she’s wired in an amazing, unique way. I’m praying that when she’s ready, she’ll walk through a grace-filled tool like the LifeGrowth Guide that won’t tell her what she has to be, but help point her to the God who made her amazing. I think that there is a lie in our culture that says too much introspection is dangerous. I’d say that just enough right self-assessment makes us dangerously good. Doing good right where we are, and also knowing where we’re going.
Let’s be dangerously good, amazing women.
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“I want her to identify her gifts not so that she can be puffed up, but so that she can pour out and be filled.” I LOVE this statement Ellen! Thank you for using your gifts to pour out and encourage us.
In a world of self-help fads, and “I” focused everything, I so loved how Holley Gerth speaks Holy Spirit inspired, God ordained truth into all of the “stuff” available to us as women. Of all the amazing truths that are found in this amazing resource, I think my favourite part is that the foundational fact and God breathed truth that we are already amazing – and that is simply and purely reflective of our Father’s heart for us…His sentiments towards us. Every girl wants to feel special and amazing in the eyes of her father – our relationship with our heavenly Father is no different. I’m thankful for this book and for the chance to have worked through it.. I will be spreading the word – every woman needs to stand on this truth n their lives!
In a society where image and status is defined as who we are, this is a refreshing book to step back and understand we are unique and amazing already. A great study. As I was going through this book, it impressed upon me that it would be an amazing study for teens and young women as they are making important life choices in their journey. This can then have a rippling affect in their choices as a spouse, or mother, or career path. For me, it was an amazing reminder to rejoice in who I am because of God!
Funny how life works…I was booked to review a completely different book and that book was back ordered so the kind people at Graf Martin sent me another book in it’s place. It was “You’re Already Amazing, Life Growth Guide.” At first I was like “yep another self help book, been there done that.” But after careful and dedicated study sessions with The life Growth Guide alone I was eager for more, I asked for the original book “You’re Already Amazing.”
You’re Already Amazing
I can honestly say the encouraging and heart felt words of this book resonated with my soul. I am now eager to start a book study with some of the ladies from our church using both of these books. That my friends, is just how great this resource is!
Every woman in every stage of life needs to read this book. The thought provoking questions along with soul searching reflection pages dig deep and allow the reader to really ponder the lies we believe, the falsehood that we can’t love who God made us to be…so preposterous right?, but to some extent we all are victims to this very lie…
If you are a woman of God, but struggle with self doubt, your emotions, relationships, connections and taking care of yourself this book is for you.
Life Growth Guide:
The Life Growth Guide takes it all a step further. With online resources and group study lessons you will be prepared to work as a team or individually to really get to the bottom of the reasons we discount how AMAZING God has created us to be, right now right here, right in the middle of diapers, dirty dishes and all the messiness of life we tend to find ourselves in.
Holley Gerth is engaging and down to earth, she comes across as your best girl friend. It is clear that she sincerely wants the best for her readers. I truly believe we all experience things in our life that lead us to Amazingness, and usually they grow out of strife and grief.
Gerth is no stranger to struggles, so it does not surprise me that her book is so effective and engaging, It seems she is doing God’s work.
I would highly encourage you to check out her website where you can print out encouraging posters, and many other resources. http://holleygerth.com/
What are you waiting for, get ready to discover your inner Amazingness!
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
See more at:
http://citygirlmovestothecountry-tanya.blogspot.ca/2016/06/book-review-youre-already-amazing-and.html
Ellen, just reread your post on this book, prompted and reminded through reading “unglued” by Lysa TerKeurst. I thought I had come across this book before in your blog. I’m definitely going to pick up a copy. What an amazing job you have and what an incredible opportunity to encourage these wonderful women who encourage so many “ordinary” people like myself!
This book had and continues to have such an impact on me. I was so inspired that I even used lots of it in a training session I did with our staff at a recent retreat. I don’t blog and it’s hard to sum up all that I have taken away from it, but here are three key things that have stuck with me.
1) God is (as my co-worker Helen Norris would say) a “lasagna God” and we can never underestimate the number of layers where He is at work. Probably a few days before this beautiful package arrived in the mail from Ellen, I received some in-depth prophetic prayer from friends at GOHOP (Greater Ontario House of Prayer). One of the pictures they had for me was a ball of clay that had been dropped in a builder’s yard and was full of slivers. I was the ball of clay, God was creating something beautiful out of the clay and the slivers were lies that I had believed. God was pulling each of those slivers out of the clay, one by one. Then, through her book, Holley Gerth made me list down all the lies that I had believed and put scriptures with the truth next to them. I’m not even going to pretend that I wrote down all the lies but at least I made a start and what a beautiful way to remember the truth and dispel the myths and lies that have snared and entrapped me.
2) I hate being encamped but right now that is where God wants me to be and that is OK. I’m an activist! I love moving forward. I’ve had to make difficult decisions in my life (leaving a secure job to work for a charity being one, and leaving my home, my family and my career to move to Canada another!) but somehow there was comfort in the “doing”. I was moving. I knew I had heard from God and I could do something about it. Now all I hear is “wait”, or worse, I hear nothing! I want to do something. But Holley reminded me of the months and years that the Israelites spent encamped in the desert. ‘As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp’ (Numbers 9: 18b NIV). I know God wants to teach me so much and I’m often too busy “doing” to take time to listen. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I feel like the cloud is overhead right now and I just need to stay where I am. I need to learn to just be with God; to enjoy His presence for who He is, not what He does for me; I need to learn to wait and to trust in Him, not in my own actions or plans.
3) The fact that I’m not good at everything is a good thing!! One on the one hand I”m pretty secure as to who I am and who God has called me to be. And on the other I spend way too much time comparing myself to others! I’m not at all creative or musical, even though I”d love to be. Last year I got married and I discovered that I am not at all “house-wifely” (is that a word?) – wearing a ring did nothing to change that! My husband is the one who owns the sewing kit and does more cleaning than I do! I lead in a different way to many other leaders. I don’t blog. I don’t do Pinterest. Sometimes I journal, sometimes I don’t! And all of that is OK. That is who I am. In my weaknesses God is strong. He gets the glory when I admit my own weakness. And I am free to be good at the things I’m good at – and I enjoy doing these things! So why waste time wishing I could do things I know I can’t and that ultimately frustrate me? Why not enjoy doing the things that God has called me to do, that I am passionate about and gifted at. And I’ll try to stop looking over my shoulder to see what everyone else is doing as that is their journey, and I”m enjoying mine.