Putting it into ACTION!
(Strength's Defined)
I remember working as a Sales person for Nutri-System Weight Loss centers back in 1989. (Don't laugh, that was before children) I quickly climbed the success ladder and won top prize for being their top sales person in the entire state of Florida. So what did they do? They promoted me to Sales Manager. Guess what? I was a HORRIBLE sale manager and the longer I was away from our clients the more miserable I became.
You see, I wasn't good at sales because I loved making money. I did well because I truly loved and cared about my clients. I loved getting know them and what mattered to them. Each of my clients became my friends. As a manager it was all about me trying to teach others the practical techniques of making a sale.
What if I had just been left to stay in my strength? I often wonder. I quickly lost my love for my career choice when I was kept from the clients and promoted (said loosely) to administrative.
I've been home from convention for a few days and I've been reading through my Strengthfinder 2.0 book. This truly is one of those life CHANGING events that happen only a handful of times in ones lifetime. When people have asked me why I homeschool I have one answer that will never change...,
1- Because I want to opportunity to teach my children about the world through a biblical worldview as their foundation without worrying that someone else is coming behind me putting questions in their little impressionable hearts. When they are older I love that we can then explore what the world believes and have deep discussions, but on OUR timetable.
However, after reading this book and taking the tests and reading through the results I have a very strong new reason to homeschool as well! (Big Excited Smile)
2- Because I don't want my children's goal in life to be like everybody else. I want the opportunity to let my boys SOAR in their strengths! I want to to invest in honing them early on. I want them to take your breath away as they explode into the world as adults.
I truly believe that God does NOT make mistakes. He would not give Brandon the gift of communication and then tell him not to use it so he can work with numbers. This Clifton Strengthfinder Test and book is all about.
What if we made the child who loves numbers, but is petrified of public speaking, invest ALL their extra time to learning how to speak publicly. Could they do it? YES! Would they become passionate, NO!
I believe that God already knows how He wants to use each of us. He tells us in Psalm 139 that He knows everything about us and that he created us, knit us together. God doesn't make mistakes.
Do we need to work on area's that are not our God Given talents? Absolutely! My boys are still gonna do all their basic core subjects. I want them prepared to chase their dreams. But whether it be curriculum or extra curricular activity I now will be extra choosy when selecting the more time intensive area's of our life.
So how do we take this information and put it into ACTION?
Right now Scott and I are considering enrolling Brandon in a speech club that travels and competes all over the state of Florida. THAT is where we want to invest our time and $$$ with this child. We are looking at piano lessons for Colton because he has an innate gifting in that area. We know that the little ones are still developing so we will give them a nice buffet of information about the world around them until the Lord begins to reveal their Talents. Understanding my children's strength's allows me to steer their ship more effectively.
One of the things I took away from this book was letting go of that old saying, "You can be anything you want" and instead will now say, "You canNOT be anything you want to be--- BUT you CAN be a lot MORE of who you ALREADY ARE!"
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• May. 30, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Jessi (from HOD board)