I’m going to slow things down a bit to make sure everyone gets a chance to read and keep up. This book is filled with activities that can help us uncover our dreams. So I’d rather be deliberate than rush through on a schedule that doesn’t work. That being said, today I wanted to mention something from chapter two.

In chapter 2, Holley writes about finding our strengths and dreaming from those as a starting point. In her Go Deeper Guide (that you can download here), she has a quick way to start identifying some of yours. I’m recreating a small part of that here, but it’s much prettier in her PDF.

Find Your Strengths: 5 Minutes

Circle three strengths that apply to you.

• Adventurous • Athletic • Brave • Calm • Capable • Caring • Cheerful • Considerate • Courageous • Creative • Dedicated • Determined • Devoted • Easygoing • Efficient • Encouraging • Energetic • Fair • Flexible • Forgiving • Friendly • Frugal • Funny • Gentle • Gracious • Hardworking • Helpful • Honest • Hospitable • Imaginative • Intelligent • Kind • Loving • Loyal • Mature • Organized • Positive • Protective • Reflective • Reliable • Resilient • Resourceful • Responsible      • Sensitive • Servant-hearted • Spontaneous • Supportive • Talented • Thoughtful • Trustworthy  • Warm • Wise • Add your own …

If you’re still wondering if the words you circled are strengths, then you can put them through the STRENGTH test:

• Service: Does it help me serve God and others?
• Time: Has it been present throughout much of my life?
• Relationships: Do others see this?
• Energy: Do I feel energized when I’m living this way?
• Natural: Does this come naturally to me most of the time? Or do I know God has intentionally developed this in me even though it doesn’t?
• Glory: Does God ultimately get the glory from it?
• Trials: Even in hard times, does it usually come through somehow?
• Heart: Does this really feel like a core part of who I am?

As a lover of all kinds of strengths and personality testing, this was easy for me. I just took a new one in August when I started the MBA program at Krannert. But I love using this to see if anything has changed. I think my top three are Dedicated, Energetic, and Servant-Hearted. But I bet my husband with have three different words for me. And my kids another 21 (4×3!)

So if you’re truly stumped, ask people who know you what words they would use for you. There have been seasons in my life where I had to do this because I was so blind to who I was for one reason or another.

Anyone want to share? Did you find this easy or hard? Did your answers change from one day to another?

Excerpts from You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream by Holley Gerth. Copyright © 201