You're Already Amazing: Embracing Who You Are, Becoming All God Created You to Be by Holley Gerth

 

Are you amazing?  

I thought this might be a “feel good” book with no substance just by read the title and back cover.   Instead, I found it to be a book with some lots of substance and good information to be put to use.

Discover why God only made one of you and why that makes you amazing.  You can find out what God’s really calling you to do with your life, once you used the materials in the book to find:

• Your God-Given Strengths
• Your Skills that are Developing
• How You’re Wired to Connect with Others

The author calls it your “LIFE Statement” instead of a mission statement.  I think all my previous efforts to align my goals with supposed priorities were defunct, because I didn’t assess my own strengths and skills.  Doesn’t God give us talents to work with?  I’ve been trying to be someone else and excel in someone else’s strengths and skills instead of my own.  

Other Topics Discussed:

• Perfectionism vs. Doing What You Can
• Hinderances
• Organizational Personalities
• Loving Others as You Move Forward in God’s Life Statement for You
• Investing in Your Overall Well-Being

As you read this book, be sure to take it slow and record your answers in the “Go Deeper Guide” for each chapter in the back of the book.

 

About the Book

Every woman can relate to the feeling of instant inadequacy after walking into a room crowded with other women, comparing themselves to everyone else in the room. We’re transported back to the seventh grade lunch room, and our quest for acceptance and perfection seems never ending. But what if there was a way to quiet our insecurities and to embrace our differences to live the life God designed specifically for us?

Good news, there is.

Award-winning author, (in)courage co-founder and life coach Holley Gerth ask readers to pull up a chair and shares the best news we’ll ever hear: You’re Already Amazing. Her warm writing style, filled with sincere encouragement and confessions about her own shortcomings, makes it easy for readers to imagine they’re enjoying an intimate conversation over a cup of coffee.

In You’re Already Amazing: Embracing Who You Are, Becoming All God Created You To Be Gerth knowingly tells readers to give up the idea of perfection, to stop comparing themselves to other women and to stop trying to be everything to everyone. She gives permission to not feel guilty for what they are not and to embrace how God created them.  By reading You’re Already Amazing, women will be told, perhaps for the first time, that they are perfect because God has made them perfect through his love. Not everyone is comfortable in front of crowds or can cook a five-course meal, but everyone has gifts and skills that are uniquely theirs. Gerth walks readers through exercises to identify their talents and skills as well as develop a life statement that captures what they are passionate about and who they want to affect with their life.

“I’m slowly learning it’s not about being perfect but about being perfectly loved,” says Gerth. “Women need to hear that they’re doing enough. That they’re already amazing because they are God’s creation, his child. For too long I thought that God wanted me to be perfect, but God doesn’t want us to be perfect, he wants our love to grow more perfect.”

Readers will emerge from You’re Already Amazing with a deeper sense of self and redefined life goals.  They will find a true friend through Gerth’s relatable writing style and sense how life-changing her words can be. Ultimately, our goal shouldn’t be self-improvement, aspiring to impossible standards, trying to please people and wearing ourselves out in the process. Instead we should be content with how God created us and to find the gifts only we can offer the world.

 

About the Author

Holley Gerth is an award-winning writer, licensed counselor, certified life coach and speaker. She is cofounder of (in)courage, an online destination for women, which received more than one million page views in its first six months. She also reaches out to readers through her popular blog, Heart to Heart with Holley and through her partnership with DaySpring, a subsidiary of Hallmark. Holley lives in Arkansas with her husband, Mark.

The Dare

Pssst . . . pull up a chair and I’ll tell you a secret. You’d better lean in close for this one.

Ready?

You don’t have to do more, be more, have more.

I’m sure there are security alarms going off somewhere. You should probably hide this book when your in-laws come over. And this could be the makings of a Sunday morning scandal.

But it’s true.

It’s the kind of true that will change your life, set you free, and make you wake up smiling for the first time in a long time. I know because that’s what it did for me (and believe me, for this non–morning girl that’s nothing short of miraculous). I’ve seen it happen to a lot of other women too. I’ve read it in their words through thousands of comments on my blog. I’ve seen it in their faces on the couch in my counseling office. I’ve heard it in a new kind of laughter over coffee with friends.

So watch out, sister. If you keep reading, you just might be next.

Even if we’ve never met, I know this about you: you’re a daughter of God, a holy princess, a woman created with strengths you’ve yet to fully grasp and a story that’s still being written by the divine Author himself. And if you really take hold of who you are and what you’re called to do, there will be no stopping you. That’s because there’s no stopping him in you—and he’s got bigger plans for your life than you’ve even imagined.

Okay, you’ve been warned.

If you’re feeling brave, I dare you to turn the page . . .

 

Available March 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book from Baker Publishing Group in exchange for my honest review.