Pieces of You by April Farlow
A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.
Pieces of You by April Farlow #Spotlight #Spirituality #Christian @aprilwfarlow @GoddessFish
Book Details
Pieces of You: Knowing Who You Are in Light of Whose You Are by April Farlow Published by Yorkshire Publishing on November 24, 2024
Genres: Non-fiction, Christian
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 168
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 from Pieces of You
Remember that forgiving someone doesn’t mean what they did is okay. It doesn’t mean you have to trust that person again. It doesn’t mean you have to be close in relationship with them. All it means is that you choose to heal. You decide to release the wrong done in favor of what’s best for your heart.
One Kaleidoscope … recalled her parents getting a divorce when she was six years old. The visits with her dad were infrequent for the next two years until he moved out of town and completely lost contact with her. She heard nothing from him till seventeen years later when her brother found a distant relative … and was given a phone number for their father.
With one text, they were back in touch with their dad. At first, their conversations were surface-level as they got to know one another again…. Emotions ran high, but thanks to his willingness to show up, my friend was able to forgive.
Fast forward another six months, and her dad abruptly stopped answering the phone again. All the work they’d done to repair the relationship was gone like that. Her emotions of abandonment came flooding back. My friend had to make the tough decision to forgive again, this time without the promise of a relationship. Through counseling, she learned she didn’t have to keep reaching out only to be let down. She learned to set boundaries and to let forgiveness heal her hurts, all without inviting the relationship with her father back to the place that it was.
Excerpt provided by the author/publisher for use in this post.
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Purchase Links for Pieces of You
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Farlow, April (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 149 Pages - 11/12/2024 (Publication Date) - Yorkshire Publishing (Publisher)
If the above links do not take you to your country’s Amazon page for Pieces of You, please let me know, and I’ll gladly get you a link.
Using my link does not change the price you pay. Amazon pays me a minimal amount from their share, and every penny helps support this blog.
Purchase Pieces of You from YOUR local Bookshop!
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About April Farlow
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.
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Guest Post by the Author of Pieces of You.
How to handle negative criticism:
Once, I worked up the courage to ask a friend who had published a book to read a draft of something I was working on privately for teenagers overcoming hardships. I asked him for feedback and sincerely appreciated his willingness to give it. It took him several weeks to respond, but when he did, his honesty stung.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but the book is not very good.”
Though he offered helpful critiques after that, I was stuck on that sentence alone. I took his word for it, tucked the book away in a drawer, and never showed it to another person. I let his words become a belief and helpful on it for nearly a decade.
I do a lot of work with young adults aging out of foster care and it wasn’t until I was sitting in one of the meetings with my students that I realized how much I was being held back by one opinion. I shared this example, and one of the students quipped, “Miss April, do you find it strange that you tell us we can do anything, but you don’t think you can write a book.”
She was so right. I had to lean into the tension to see that it was stopping me in my tracks. And well, here I am promoting my first book. The problem, I took an extra decade to get here, and I sure hope you won’t let negative criticism hold you back in the same way. Here are a few things I learned along the way that might be helpful:
Explore your WHY.
It is important to determine what is driving you to do what you do. That’s not only what will get you going; it’s what will keep you going. If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you won’t know why you need to press on when things get hard (and trust me, things will eventually get hard!)
Be flexible with the path, not the purpose.
There is a good chance you are going to hear “no.” Sometimes it will be an all-out “NO!” Other times it will be a subtle, quiet response. Either way, it isn’t easy when you experience hurdles. But remember, that hurdle – that no – could be re-direction toward a new path that will allow you to accomplish the same purpose. Let the “no” do something different. Let it push you forward.
Decide who gets a vote.
In the world of publishing, it is tricky because every agent or publishing rejection feels deeply personal. Here is the reality, you won’t be fit for everyone. You are looking for the right match and that almost surely involve some “no” responses. In any goal, I believe if it comes too easy, perhaps you didn’t strive big enough. I once heard of a party for high school seniors. The party invitation had a bonfire in the center and the only thing required to come to the party was a college rejection letter.
The point: if you didn’t get rejected by at least one school, you likely didn’t apply to reach high enough. I believe the same is true in any goal – you must put yourself out there to know you gave it your very best. In my case, I allowed one person to have too big of a vote. Sure, he got to share one opinion, but I missed the mark by not continuing to look for a match for my story.
Let’s just remember that you will hear negative criticism, in fact I have learned if you don’t get any feedback from the person who is engaging with you then they may have very little interest. Carnegie Melon professor and author, Randy Pausch said it better, “When the football coach quits yelling at you, he is finished with you.” Thinking about it, the coach isn’t yelling at anyone who doesn’t have a direct impact on the game.
The same is true in life, when we are key players, we will hear critical feedback. The better question is, how do we allow it to push us forward. When we know our why; stay focused on the outcome, but flexible with the path; and when we decide how much the votes of each denial count – we can push forward to get to our goal!
I shared about this story and many more of my personal hurdles in “Pieces of You” and I sure hope you will read along as you push towards your next goal!
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Giveaway!
The author will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!
Official Tour Page for Pieces of You
Full Tour Schedule:
October 3: Kenyan Poet
October 3: A Wonderful World of Words
October 10: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
October 17: Joanne Guidoccio
October 24: Fabulous and Brunette
October 31: Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
November 7: Beverley A Baird – review
November 7: The Pen and Muse Book Reviews
November 14: Literary Gold
November 21: Boys’ Mom Reads!
December 5: Sandra’s Book Club
December 12: The Avid Reader
December 12: Long and Short Reviews
December 19: Country Mamas With Kids – review
January 2: Gina Rae Mitchell
January 2: travel the ages
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