It’s time to take a look at the unique pieces that make up who you are … PIECES OF YOU , Christian Living by April Farlow Book Tour with Guest Post & Giveaway

  

PIECES OF YOU

April Farlow

 

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GENRE:  Christian Living

 

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BLURB:

 

Knowing who you are has always been challenging, and in today’s world, more and more voices are coming from more and more places telling us who we should be. The result? A broken sense of identity that we’re struggling to put back together.

 

In Pieces of You, April Farlow shares how she discovered her identity is formed by the God who made her. Along the way, she’s learned that if we want to put the pieces of who we are together in a real, lasting way, we have to look to Whose we are for help.

 

It’s time to take a look at the unique pieces that make up who you are …

 

The pieces you compare …

The pieces informed by the father figure in your life …

The painful pieces …

The pieces of your relationships …

The pieces on which you’ve built your beliefs …

The pieces that give you rules and boundaries …

The pieces that show what you value …

The pieces that give you purpose …

The pieces that help you build a vision for what’s to come.

 

As we work to put those pieces together, we’ll look to the God who made us, knows us, and loves us to guide us. Because when you take all your pieces—the good, the bad, the broken, and the beautiful—and place them in your Heavenly Father’s hands, there, you’ll find peace. There, you’ll find security. There, you’ll find a real sense of who you are and Whose you are.

 

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EXCERPT

 

Over just a few hours, my Kaleidoscopes began to lean into each other’s stories. Things got real fast. And I think that’s because we took a break from measuring ourselves against each other. Instead of comparing, we chose to share.

 

And that’s a great place to start.

 

To stand confidently in both who you are and Whose you are, you must first learn to avoid the temptation to compare. Staying out of the comparison trap is an essential piece of the puzzle that is discovering and embracing our identity.

 

After our meeting, my friend Angela went home and looked in her daughter’s school folder. There, she found a worksheet her seven-year-old, Elle, had filled out. “Color yourself and then write words to describe yourself in the circles,” the instructions said across the top. That’s precisely what Elle did. She colored her hair and eyes to match hers and wrote six words to describe herself.

 

Funny

Artistic

Pretty

Love

Kind

Smart

 

For Angela, her daughter’s list was not only accurate, but it was also a stark contrast to the list she and the other women had made. Angela told me about it later: "I wonder at what age we stop believing the good? I wonder what happens to cause us to begin seeing the negative before the positive?”

 

I wonder the same for all of us.

 

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Guest Post:

Pros and cons of writing in your genre:

I was afraid I picked the wrong genre for my book, until yesterday!  Seriously, I have spent the last twenty years speaking to corporations and I felt compelled to start sharing some of the content I speak about in churches; topics like vision development, values, building trust and relationships.  I wrote “Pieces of You” in the “Women’s Christian Living” genre.  The problem, I feared, was that I was not going to be able to promote my book when I work because it is a faith-based book, specifically written for women. 

Yesterday, I was speaking at a conference and they actually asked if I would talk about my faith in addition to the topics I had prepared.  It was also the first time I have had a book in hand to share with an audience.  Here is what I learned:  write the book you feel compelled to write.  Seriously, what if I had missed writing this book because I made myself stay with my work experience?  Of course there are pros for staying in your lane, but I am looking at this as an opportunity to expand my reach.  It is exciting to find way to use my experience while also bridging into another audience.   

No doubt there are pros and cons of any genre.  For the “Women’s Christian Living” genre, I hope to make a positive impact on a group of readers who are always looking for new information.  There is a built-in audience, especially for women in church community groups who learn together on an ongoing basis.  I have far more experience teaching and speaking and so I hope to make videos to accompany my book to reach this audience.  I also end every chapter with questions for these small group discussions. 

Of course, any genre has challenges.  The biggest hurdle for me will be overcoming the niche market.  Since I mostly speak for corporations, I won’t be able to share about the book at most of my speaking engagements and will limit a large group of readers since the book is written specifically for women.  I believe I will overcome this by sharing about the personal goal I had to write a book when I speak about crafting a vision and hope it will open conversations to share about the book itself. 

One other challenge I anticipate is criticism.  I have noticed many faith-based authors are put under scrutiny for their beliefs.  I feel strongly about the messages and so I am willing to take the risk.  The topics I cover in the book have changed my life and if I can do help readers explore the same question I have asked along the way, then it is a risk I would take every time.  For the readers who do pick up “Pieces of You,” I am excited to see how they change their perception of who and whose they are.   

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

April Farlow has spent the last 20 years motivating audiences to get out of their comfort zone, speak up, and represent their values. In corporate environments, one piece is missed—the ability to talk about forming your identity in God. Today, as a speaker, author, coach, and non-profit leader, April is changing this by sharing her faith journey and helping others do the same with clarity and conviction.

 

In 2017, after speaking to a group of foster youth, April founded Lydia’s Place, a ministry serving young adults who have experienced foster care or homelessness. April and her husband have four girls and live on a mini-farm outside of Athens, Georgia.

 

http://www.aprilfarlow.com

http://www.instagram.com/aprilwfarlow

 

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GIVEAWAY 

 The author will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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