About a month ago, I published The Work of Our Hands: The Universal Gift of Creativity which is about how God invites all of us to use the creative gifts he gives us to help shape the world. The four people who reviewed it so far enjoyed it (I had gifted them review copies). Here are excerpts of the reviews on Amazon:
I do not think of myself as creative or as having any creative gifts. Reading this book has given me much on which to reflect. My creativity is not in the areas I would have thought were creative before reading this book. I cannot draw, or paint, or sculpt. I can write a book review, but that is about as far as my talents in those areas lie. My real talents, my creativities, lie in the ability to take care of others and to organize. I highly recommend this little book as a tool for anyone struggling to see themselves as God sees them. It has the tools to help you on that journey.
Wow, I really needed this book right now! If you’re like me (after almost a year of increased exposure to the interior of your home…😉), and you’re in need of a lovely challenge to get your creative juices flowing, providing your mind and hands with some worthwhile, lasting work (rather than wasting your day staring at a screen!) this is it. Reading this book brought to mind a project that has been collecting dust in my attic for four years, so I pulled it out to get working on it. This book has me so motivated to get going!
The
31 reflections in the book are perfect for a do-it-yourself retreat.
The author lives up to her promise--a book which invites the reader
"into a deeper relationship with God" while helping to "cultivate a
deeper appreciation of your own creative gifts." The Work of Our Hands
not only nurtures the creativity within, but also serves to nourish our
relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur shares her own gift to show us that we are all called by the Divine Creator to use our own gifts for the good of others, whether that is writing, painting, caregiving, cooking, etc. She also emphasizes the importance of rest and appreciated and caring for God's creation.
I can take some comfort in the fact that these four people thought my book had some value and that it benefited them in some way, but sales have been nonexistent (with the exception of one person who I offered to give a review copy to, but who chose to buy a Kindle copy). I know that I am not a big-name writer and my expectations for sales of my books are always low, but nonexistent is painful. Ironically, one of the topics covered in this book is "When Our Work Fails". I know God has His reasons (no doubt more lessons in humility. God seems to bludgeon me with a 2' x 4' with those). That doesn't mean that I didn't cry and tell myself I was worthless and a failure about 1000 times. It still hurts, but I have dusted myself off and regained a sense of perspective. I know in the big scheme of things, this doesn't matter to anyone but me, and even in my world, it is a small problem.
But I still think that the book itself has value and that people might benefit from reading it. It has 31 reflections, so I thought I would post one on my blog for each day of January. I hope that you enjoy the posts and that you use whatever creative gifts God has given you to help make our world a better place in the coming year.
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