In the Desert

Ever felt thirsty in the desert with all the predators watching for you to fall?

You’re hyper aware, but don’t know what to do.

Usually the feeling of being a “in the desert” comes from a lack of something. I’ve found that lack often means I need to grow personally in order to get out of my perceived desert. I start desperately searching for the answers.

Personal improvement is a passion for me. Recently at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS), I had the opportunity to interview a few voices on the national scene about their books and research toward personal improvement.

Some of them used personal funds, some spent a lifetime pursuing the answer to a passionate question, and some were simply inspired at the right time. All have a valuable offering on personal improvement. All drew on God’s wisdom to help others grow. Let me share a little bit with you in case you’re on a journey desperately looking for answers in the desert. These tools from people who searched for the answers to specific needs might help you in your search too.

Lysa TerKeurst: New York Times Best- Selling author, Lysa TerKeurst. Lysa’s book is Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions. Unglued debunks the age-old excuse that women are ‘just emotional creatures’ by urging them to understand that “emotions are good indicators, not dictators.”

 Visiting with Lysa, her passion for helping women and her humble self-acknowledgement of her own challenges caught my attention. Honestly, I just plain liked her. I enjoyed learning how we move between being a stuffer and an exploder. I appreciated that she shared both were not character flaws, but parts to join together for soul integrity. She suggested Psalm 19: 14. A verse I love too.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. NIV 1984

Wayne E. Nance: Meet author and motivational trainer Wayne Nance whose personal journey uncovered a proven solution—a solution that can alter your health, money, and relationships in only three minutes without changing who you are.

A = Awareness. Become aware of your attitude, the natural, inborn hardwiring that drives you behavior.
L = Learn. Learn as much as you can about your inborn attitude, and learn as much as possible about the issue on which you want to work.
T = Tactical plan.  Create a realistic and personally meaningful plan for getting the results you want.
E = Execute the plan. Translate your good intentions in to actual action by working your personalized plan.
R = Re-evaluate.  Periodically evaluate your progress and use what you learn to develop your next plan of action.

 Nance thoroughly explores each of these vital areas, defining and explaining   them in detail. Readers will come away with surprising, perhaps first-time-ever  insight into their own core beliefs and attitudes, as well as a valuable tool to use in improving their lives in many vital areas. We can achieve our life goals. We can correct destructive life patterns. And we can celebrate the joy of being everything we are meant to become.

Here’s a test used in determining your core hard wiring.

Be aware the results are available on the backside of the website for coaching purposes and your results will be emailed with potential purchase opportunities. I thought it was intriguing and fun to find out I’m a very balanced person. Shh, don’t tell my kids 😉

 

James Bars: James created a highly creative book, How God Changes A Life, due to his personal life experience. During our interview, I had the delight to meet with both James and his lovely wife. This humble man shared how the analogy of a song can become our own “Life Song”. Through the book, James teaches how to create your own “life song” to the Lord.

Within the few square inches of gray matter that is your brain – resides you. Everything else is a combination of earth, water and the breath of life.

In your brain your conscious and sub-conscious minds are humming away at processing rate of 30 billion bits of information per second. This control center runs your life.

Here are your hopes, your dreams, your future, your past, your pain, your joy, your sorrow, your love – all that you are . . .

This book brings to light the science and power behind life transformation and provides creative tools to increasingly bring your life into harmony with God’s will each day.

I hope you enjoy the tools I’ve shared.

Leave a comment with a tool you feel has helped you walk a life closer to the Lord.

Hyper Aware Photo courtesy of Angela Breidenbach
Book covers provided by featured authors or their publicist