If you read my last post about My Favorite Things Giveaway #2, you know that God worked a miracle in my husband and he went from hating to read to devouring book and after book. The book that I’m going to give away in today’s giveaway is his favorite book.

At the beginning of the year my brother, who is an avid reader, had lent us several of his books. Out of that stack of books, my husband picked this particular book to read first because it was small, but he had no idea the HUGE impact it would have on him. My husband could relate to well to the main character in the book, Zacchaeus, who was somewhat of a misfit, but who had an extremely generous heart.

This historical fiction masterpiece I am referring to is
“The Greatest Success in the World” by Og Mandino. I had never read any books by Mandino before, so I was surprised when my husband could not put the book down until he had finished the entire book. And I think even he was surprised at how the book, especially the unexpected ending, affected him emotionally. He had never had a book touch him so deeply before.

So, of course, my husband was quite anxious for me to read the book too. Once I started, I didn’t want to put it down either. I couldn’t believe that all these years I had never heard of Og Mandino, an absolute master story-teller. We went on to read many more of Mandino’s books, but we both like “The Greatest Success in the World” the best.

The second to last chapter of the book has special meaning to me as it gives “The Tenth Commandment of Success: Thou Must Never Strive To Be Anything But Thyself.”

To be what you are and to become what you are capable of becoming is the secret of a happy life. Every living soul has different talents, different desires, different faculties. Be yourself. Try to be anything else but your genuine self, even if you deceive the entire world, and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing…

You cannot choose your calling. Your calling chooses you. You have been blessed with special skills that are yours alone. Use them, whatever they may be, and forget about wearing another’s hat. A talented chariot driver can win gold and renown with his skills. Let him pick figs and he would starve.

No one can take your place. Realize this and be yourself. You have no obligation to succeed. You have only the obligation to be true to yourself. Do the very best that you can, in the things you do best, and you will know, in thy soul, that you are the greatest success in the world.

What I love and do best is creating invitations, cards and stationery. So along with the book, I am also giving away a set of notecards. On the front of the folded note cards is a picture of a sunrise and one of my favorite Scriptures, “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the Lord’s name is to be praised.” -Psalm 113:3

To purchase this notecard set or other invitations or stationery visit JoyfulHeartDesign.com, my online shop, or my new Holiday Gift Shop.

So here’s the instructions for entering today’s giveaway:

My Favorite Things Giveaway #3

To enter the giveaway:

1. LIKE this post, then comment below (on facebook comment section) with your favorite book or your favorite author.
2. LIKE one or both of my fan pages: Shine Through Social Media’s Fan Page or Joyful Heart Design

For additional entries: Click one or more of the share buttons below to let your friends know about this giveaway, too. Then add another comment below letting me know where you shared this post.

Contest deadline: Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010 at 12 midnight CST.

Winner will be announced on Thursday, December 23, 2010. (I will only ship to a US address.)

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Related posts:

1. Christmas Giveaway of My Favorite Things
2. My Favorite Things Giveaway #2