As I mentioned a few entries back, I read the Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado, and I wanted to read it again when I was done. Well, in the midst of the re-read, I passed it along to my sweet husband who recently finished it. After reading the book, my husband was very happy to find that he actually is living in his sweet spot. Me, not so much.
The book suggests that we all should be using “our uniqueness to make a big deal out of God every day of ” our lives and gives a lot of suggestions on figuring out what our uniqueness is and how we can use it. He uses this acronym:
S – what are your STRENGTHS?
T – what is your TOPIC? (What gets you passionate?)
O- what are your OPTIMAL CONDITIONS?
R- what about RELATIONSHIPS? How do you best relate with people?
Y- YES! When do you feel God’s pleasure?
He suggests looking back over your life and recalling moments where you felt like you were made to do whatever it was and then answer the STORY questions. Here is some of what I came up with:
S – I am a leader and I am pretty good at administration. Before I had children, I had a great memory. I rock standardized tests.
T- I am totally a history person and I am decent with money. I love Jesus. I also like to write. I love walking around big cities.
O- I need a deadline, but I also like to control when I do what. I also tend to get depressed if I am not busy enough, so I need activity.
R- I like to work by myself. I am an extrovert, so I need access to people, but I really like the sense of accomplishment of completing something from start to finish by myself.
Y- This one was tough! I know there have been times when I have thought “I was made for this!”, but I have difficulty thinking of them. The only one I thought of was when I was in college my freshmen year and taking US History 2 which primarily covered the Industrial Revolution. At the time, I was a miserable chemical engineering major desperately looking for another major since I liked neither Chemistry nor Engineering anymore. I also was on scholarship probation which is not as bad as scholastic probation, but just as scary since if I didn’t improve my grades, I would lose my sweet scholarship. My history class was an honors class and I need an A in there to balance the Bs I was planning (that’s right, planning) to receive in Physics and Drafting. I spent that entire semester writing paper after paper since you could rewrite until you got the grade you wanted or in my case, needed. I studied the Industrial Revolution and fell in love with it. Since I was not at all interested in continuing in engineering, I figured I must be meant for business. I was required to do honors advising during that time and one woman mentioned that some smart people are meant to do liberal arts, but our education system shoves them into the sciences where they are miserable. I totally thought she was talking about other people. It only occurred to me while reading this book that she MIGHT have been talking about me. Oh, well.
So, looking at my list, it is little wonder that the thought of doing grants accounting or auditing (my last 2 jobs before Eli was born) does not excite me. I love staying home with my kids, but knowing that I only have a few more years left with Lucy before they are all in school makes me wonder. How I will use my time in such away that I will know I was made for what I am doing?
