Cultivate ISBN: 9780718021665
Length: 6 hours and 40 minutes
by Lara Casey
Format: Audio
Published by Thomas Nelson Incorporated on 2017
Pages: 272
I saw this book ALL over instagram and I did not want to feel left out so I too, downloaded my nook to my Kindle Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
A flourishing life is possible--no perfection required!
Women often feel like they have to have it all together in order to live a meaningful life. Instead they feel inadequate, overwhelmed, and exhausted as they to figure out how to do it all. Author, business owner, and mom to three Lara Casey offers sound and grace-filled advice: "We can't do it all, and do it well. But, we can choose to cultivate what matters."
Welcome to the journey of getting messy in the rich soil of possibility--embracing imperfect, grace-filled progress to grow a life of joy.
Written as part encouragement anthem and part practical guide, Cultivate offers wisdom from God's Word alongside lessons Lara has learned in her garden. Woven throughout is her personal story that helps release readers from the pressure to achieve and gives them freedom to move from planning to planting a meaningful legacy. "It's in the imperfect--the mess of the dirt--that good things grow," Casey reminds readers. "Peonies grow through the dirt, and so do we." Readers will learn to embrace the season they're in, finding balance as they interact in fresh ways with their current life scenarios, with God, and in the communities where they are planted.
Special features include
- Actionable Cultivate It prompts throughout the book
- A ten-week Cultivate Together discussion guide with questions for small groups
- "Grace from the Garden" vignettes provide encouragement and inspiration
Find the joy and the freedom that comes in cultivating what matters, little by little, with God's transforming grace.
I follow people with GREAT taste in books on Instagram. A few years ago I saw the first book she wrote “Make it Happen” alll over Instagram and after seeing it a million times I bought it for my Kindle and It was good. Fast forward to 2018, and again I saw Laura Cassey second book “Cultivate” all over Instagram, and while Make It Happen was good, Cultivate blew Make it Happen our of the water. I was so impressed that I almost bought her Powersheets book.
To really grasp the irony of that last sentence, there is something you should know. Even though I grew up in Central Appalachia and even tho my parents are fundies as I call them I am firmly in the New Age Self Help camp. Think Danielle Laport, and you have a pretty good idea of where I fall on the religious spectrum.
So when I read a book by a, and I temporarily lose my snarkiness.. well you know that it was a damn good book.
I have found that Christain people fall into two camps I COULD be wrong, but from my observation, this is what I see. Either they are Thanking the Good Lord above for a car that is headed to the junkyard at any minute, or they are rich beyond believe and get all arrogant and tell people that if they would just think harder, they to shall enjoy all that creation has to offer. However, Laura Casey is neither of those, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated that. She uses her garden and the act of gardening to driving home the messages she is making.
I also like her take on affirmations. I am huge on affirmations sometimes we all need a reminder of how good we are and to get our butts out there and grab the bull by the horns. Well, at least I do. I had no idea that you could do them the way she does.
Laura Casey tells us how she has a tending list that she fills out at the start of each month, so she knows what needs cultivating and what are weeds. I even saw a worksheet on her website that is a drawing of a garden where you list what is growing in your life, and yes you list the weeds. Me being me I told a friend the only thing that came to mind that was growing in my life was my ass. Then again I was having a flare-up of pain that day so was especially snarky. Later I came up with some stuff, and I could see what exactly was going on in my life. I have got waaay off track with what I had hoped to accomplish this year. I blame it on my Hashimentios. Heh
I was thinking that I wish that I had a “tending list” in MY planner. I have the Desire Map planner and have received one for Christmas for the last three years. I looked, and I told myself “Look dummy that is what the page before each chapter is. It may not be called a “tending list,” but the concept is the SAME!” I felt a little stupid that it took me to figure out what the monthly goal setting page was really for. Ah well, live and learn.
I was also thinking of how I need to lay off the 5 stars and save the 5 stars for the books that knock me off of my feet. Well, friends ‘Cultivate” DID knock me off of my feet. Highly recommended!
