Interesting thoughts re: Strengths & Weaknesses

Just sharing here a post I've been thinking about off & on ever since I read it for the first time over at heart to heart with holley.

In support of your strengths (and weaknesses)...

I love words.

Always have.

I don't like numbers.

Always have.

Are you nodding your head with me?

Shaking it back and forth in disagreement?

Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, authors of Now, Discover Your Strengths, would say there's a reason for your particular response.

They explain our brains are actually wired to response in certain ways.

"By the age of three each of your hundred billion neurons have formed fifteen thousand synaptic connections with other neurons....Your pattern of threads, extensive, intricate and unique, is woven."

Pretty amazing, huh?

Marcus and Donald go on to say that by age sixteen half of these connections are lost. "Oh, no!" I thought.

But it's actually a great big, "Oh, yes!" to who God created you to be.

The connections dropped allow you to focus intensely on the remaining ones, your strengths. As Marcus and Donald say,

"Your smartness and your effectiveness depend on how well you capitalize on your strongest connections. Nature forces you to shurt down billions of connections precisely so that you can be freed up to exploit the ones remaining. Losing connections isn't something to be concerned about. Losing connections is the point."

In essence, the most vibrant connections become our strengths and those that fade away become our weaknesses.

I loved this because there are parts of me I wish I could change. I'm sure no one else feels that way.

I don't have many decorating, details, or dinner-making connections in my brain. No, ma'am.

But it turns out that God has physically wired me with strengths that let me fulfill His purpose for my life. And He helps me do so by strategically creating certain weaknesses too. It gives "strength made perfect in weakness" a whole new meaning.

Our divinely created strengths are actually supported by our weaknesses because if we were good at everything we wouldn't focus on much of anything.

Maybe no one else struggles with this but for me, this was some of the best news I've heard in a long time. Sigh of relief.

For my husband's sake, I'm still going to try to keep those weaknesses a little in check (who made coffee without a filter last week because she's not so good at details? ahem).

But I'm also going to celebrate who I am and who you are...fearfully and wonderfully made, strengths and weaknesses both, woven together just right.

Care to join me?

via

Summer Storms

Dancing in the rain the other night

Racing leaves in the gutter

After the storm an odd & eerie (but really VERY cool!)

yellow glow was cast over our area.

Then last night we had back to back storms
- the first of which included tornado warnings...

& for a time our road morphed into a rushing river.

The Swimmin' Hole

We visited Spokes the other day & enjoyed some good ol fashioned fun at a nearby swimmin' hole.

silly summer fun w/ the sprinkler

Flowers

Found this beauty at a roadside farmstand when I stopped to pick up some fresh veggies & have been enjoying it ever since. My own sunflowers should be blooming soon!

& from my garden.....

Finally(!) I'm having some success w/ morning glories :)

Isn't she lovely?!

As my hydrangeas gradually come into their own,

the light green, creamy white &
lavender color combination is just so pretty. Soon they'll be an unusual shade of blue
that's almost - but not quite - purple

4th of July

I've been havin' some camera issues so I'm a bit behind on
posting "current events" but am hopin' to do some catching up today.

Our 4th of July was spent on the water swimming, skiing, wakeboarding & tubing
-- havin' a grand 'ol time ... until my husband took a spill while skiing & gave
me one of the biggest scares of my entire life! I have never ever seen him in
such pain & in the first few minutes after his spill, I was SO afraid he'd
either broken his back or his neck - but after he managed to replenish the wind
that had been knocked out of him & was given some time to recoup, he managed
to hoist himself back into the boat on his own & hindsight seems it indicate
that he probably cracked a rib or two. - Needless to say, he opted to stay home & rest while we ventured out that evening to celebrate our nation's birthday by watching some fabulous fireworks in a nearby town. We had nice time - but somethin' (someone!) was missing :(

Fast Forward to now....Each day he improves but still when he sneezes (which he tries to avoid at all costs!) it's agonizing. The other night he sneezed & I thought he might be having a heart attack! Poor guy. I'm just so thankful it wasn't worse & that each day he's getting better.

True-U

Just tho't to share here a DVD series we're going thru' this summer w/ a group (mix of Jr. High, High-School & College students & adults) from our church.

....TrueU is an apologetics training series primarily geared to help prepare high school students for the rigorous challenges and attacks that will confront them on the university campus. My guess is that it will end up benefiting a whole lot more folks than just high school seniors.”

Dr. Del Tackett, Focus on the Family / The Truth Project

The goal of TRUE-U is to equip participants to confidently answer "scientific" arguments that are frequently leveled against biblical faith & the evidence presented is on par with what collegians can expect to encounter in a university biology or philosophy course. Lessons taught by Dr. Stephen Meyer* are academic and challenging (e.g., in-depth exploration of the structure of the DNA molecule, discussion of mathematical probabilities, etc.)

It's really good stuff presented in an interesting/attention-grabbing way that has generated some great discussion as we examine the evidence - of which there is an abundant supply - for why we believe what we believe.

Check it out HERE

"I now see the necessity of a beginning."

Albert Einstein

*Dr. Meyer serves as Director and Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, in Seattle, Washington. He holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in the History and Philosophy of Science, having written his doctoral dissertation on the methodology of historical sciences and the history of origin of life biology. Dr. Meyer earned undergraduate degrees in physics and geology, and worked as a geophysicist prior to undertaking his Ph.D. studies. Before joining the Discovery Institute, he taught at the collegiate level for twelve years.