Start Here...Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are

I was ready to go out and conquer hard projects. Big responsibilities. Things far outside my comfort zone. I prayed for God to work through me in big ways. He answered me, but not quite in the ways I expected.

For instance, one night on the way home in a blizzard, my dad and I stopped for a few minutes to pick up some necessities at the store. I waited in the car and surveyed the nearly empty parking lot until my eye caught a lone car with a person scrapping snow. As I looked closer, I saw that it was an elderly lady trying to scrape off her car while leaning on a cane. She wasn’t making much progress because the snow was falling faster than she could wipe it off. I felt instinctively that I had to help her. I ran out with my scraper, and soon a few other people joined me in clearing off her car.

Nothing outwardly significant happened then, but this was the first time I had strongly heard God’s voice and responded to it. As I tuned in, I began to recognize His voice at other times. I sensed I should go talk to the girl who was crying in the bathroom at school – it turns out she was pregnant and needed help. Or that I should offer tips to someone who was trying out for the sports team – it turns out she needed advice on deeper areas of her life that she normally wouldn’t have opened up about.

What I have found out is that in order to do hard things and conquer big challenges, we need to be willing to listen to that little voice the Holy Spirit uses. The more you listen, the clearer it becomes. And in order to do the great things, you must first be a servant.

Those are the words of Elizabeth, 17, from Raymond, Maine who is finding out how teens can do things in their early years to bring glory to God. Often times however, they don’t know where to start or know how to get the results that they need.

This book, Start Here, from Alex & Brett Harris, is a great book for anyone looking to start making a difference in their lives to bring God glory. While the book is written for teens, I can see even adults learning from all kinds of concepts the book teaches, like how to fund raise, ways to get going when you feel stuck and keep going when you get discouraged, how to understand God’s will and glorify Him through your efforts, how to stand up for what you believe and many, many more ideas.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group and would highly recommend this book. If you would like more information on this book and where to purchase this book please click on the link below.
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781601422705&ref=externallink_mlt_starthere_sec_0127_01

This book has inspired my own daughter to begin her own ministry that she has set a goal of making 50 scarves by the end of the year to donate to a third world country. She is still working out the details but if you are interested in helping her meet her goal and can crochet or knit and would love to donate your scarves to help Caitlyn, please email me and I can send you the information on where to send them.