My friend recently took his family to Disney World®. Knowing his strengths, I got to thinking about how he "does" Disney, and how might someone else with different strengths do Disney differently? In this post, we consider how the 34 strengths might behave in the Magic Kingdom®.

By "34 strengths," we’re referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® developed by behavioral psychologist Donald Clifton (Happy Birthday). Knowing your top strengths has great value for life and work, even...

I got to thinking how my strengths might affect the way I want to celebrate, and how folks with other strengths may celebrate theirs. We've already considered how the strengths may do Disney World® and choose a baby name. In this post, we wonder what they might do on their special day.

By "34 strengths," we're referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® of talent. Being aware of your talents, growing them into strengths, and aiming them toward your goals is a key to success in life and...

It's Halloween time, so we got to thinking how our strengths might dress up for the holiday. We've already considered how the strengths may celebrate their birthday, do Disney World® and choose a baby name. In this post, we wonder how they may dress on Halloween.

By "34 strengths," we're referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® of talent. Being aware of your talents, growing them into strengths, and aiming them toward your goals is a key to success in life and work.

Here are costume...

If you're like me, you've struggled with prayer. But I believe for the Christian, prayer isn't supposed to be the hard work. The hard work was already done by Jesus to make us approved and accepted by God. Now we get to relax in the river of grace and enjoy God.

Prayer is a means to do that. But what if our prayer lives become an obstacle to swimming in grace, enjoying God?

That's why I got so excited when I started noticing different types of prayer in the Bible.

For example, in the letters...

Several of my friends are preparing to have babies. That made me wonder how people with different strengths might choose a baby name. We considered the same thing with Disney World, so we thought we’d do the same with baby names.

How would the 34 strengths choose a baby name? By "34 strengths," we’re referring to the 34 CliftonStrengths® developed by behavioral psychologist Donald Clifton.

Achiever®: You race to find a name so you can check off “Choose Baby...

When I was a child, the neighbor boy flashed some flashy magazines at me.

We were underneath the trees that bordered my yard. The shade cast dark shadows on us, which concealed our activity. He didn’t tell me these magazines were forbidden, but I sensed it in the hushed secrecy of the shadows.

Time stood still, pregnant with exhilaration and danger. We could be caught. But it didn’t matter, this I had to see. At that point, I was too young for my parents to have considered giving...

When you feel unworthy of God’s love, think about this:

Not all feelings can be trusted. They come and go as the wind blows. They can lead you astray. Feelings are not your true north.

God will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He has compelled himself to obey His own Word because God never breaks His promises. God’s Word says He will never leave you, so He won’t.

God’s love is not based on your own nature or ability or goodness—it’s based on...

The first time I heard someone speak in tongues, I thought he was speaking Greek. That’s because I took Greek in college and wasn’t good at it. And because of that, I didn’t know what Greek really sounded like. After I figured out it wasn’t Greek, I realized that maybe it was tongues. I would have preferred Greek.

But tongues are what it was. Up to that point the only experience I had with tongues was something I read somewhere, and in the corner of my memory, a...

We introduced the idea that there are different types of prayer and we can find our strengths in prayer. Prayer isn’t supposed to be the hard work; the hard work was already done by Christ to make us approved and accepted by God.

You’re going to lean toward different types of prayer—your sweet spot in prayer. The point is to discover your sweet spot so it can lead you into a deep and satisfying relationship with your Heavenly Father.

In order to help you find your prayer...

Sometimes I get asked what happens in a strengths coaching session (or a strengths debrief as it’s also called). The short answer is it depends on what the client wants to get out of it. I don’t approach a session with my own agenda; as a coach, I want to follow the client’s agenda.

But if a client has never been to a coaching session, they may not know the possibilities. That’s when I like to offer options so the client can choose what will be most valuable. The...