Equipped to Bless : Finding Relevance in the Stories of Your Life

Everyone has a story. From buttercups and butterflies to knee-deep snowdrifts and desert sands, each person's life is a treasure chest, a rich repository, designed to carry the gold, silver, and jewels of story, meaning, and purpose. The stories begin before we are born. There is romance, obligation, joy, pain, and a myriad of other circumstances and emotions that birth us into the story we call life. A STORY is the big picture that encompasses every minute detail, every little story contained within. STORY is the narrative account or course of one's life. Even if we choose not to believe it is rich and amazing, our STORY is a treasure and reads like an interesting novel—one that carries us away into a life so amazing we forget it is our own. Every story has conflict, action, suspense, and a thematic thread that ties the pieces together with an intended purpose. This purpose reaches far into a greater STORY that is unfolding on the stage of the universe. As stories gather within each life, they create a greater STORY that marks an individual with, well . . . individuality. My STORY is unique. So is yours. And all of them are as precious as the next because every life STORY is also part of a Divine STORY. Cover; Title page; Copyright; FOREWORD; CONTENTS; Introduction: Unique and Connected; PART ONE: THE TREASURE OF STORY; God's Plan for My Cinderella Story; Mistaken for Bits; Uniquely You; In the Beginning; The Meet in the Middle; The End Is Near; PART TWO: P.E.O.P.L.E. AND STORY; Undressing in a Glass House; P. People; E. Events; O. Opportunities; P. Places; L. Lessons; E. Endings; PART THREE: EMBRACING THE RELEVANCE OF YOUR STORY; Embrace the Relevance; Ears ... Eyes ... Heart ... and Hearing; Well-Equipped and Relevant Train Wrecks; Equipped and Relevant; Epilogue; NOTE; ABOUT THE AUTHORS Stories have the power to paint a picture of our individual relevance, to connect us with others, and allow us to experience blessing as we bless others. Pull up a chair ... Something to put your feet on ... and let's look at the stories that make us who we are, and the beautiful ways in which they interact with others to give life meaning