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
Thank you so much for featuring PIECES OF YOU today.
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