Day 481 of Giving Thanks - Guest Writer, Tammy Maltby

Friends, I have the honor to introduce my wonderful friend Tammy Maltby. Tammy is one of those ladies who lets you know that you are "at home" when you are with her. God truly delivered the right ministry to her. She is a beautiful woman of God with an amazing spirit - she is the real deal.

Discovering the Secrets to a beautiful life.

by: Tammy Maltby

Last week I was scurrying around my home preparing for a dinner with some of my close female friends. The glow of candles warmed each room. Soft music played. The aroma of cranberry chicken enveloped the air with a come-hither temptation. As my friends arrived they were immersed in this lifegiving moment. We feasted upon delicious appetizers and talked of our love for beauty, wonderful scents and magnificent looking food! We laughed, ate and connected. The energy was high. The air was light. Our hearts were full.

It was life to us.

Women everywhere long for beautiful lives. Lives of substance and loveliness. Lives that find splendor in the mundane…glory in the commonplace. While that picture looks as different as the woman holding the yearnings, it is none the less a strong magnet. Women intuitively sense they were made to bring life to their surroundings.

Pick up a National Geographic and see women from every walk of life, color of skin and socioeconomic level celebrating life and beauty. Lifegiving is more than an idea is a breathtakingly beautiful way to live and love. It's the essence of who we are as women… a mindset, a lifestyle, and a beautiful touch. It is the place our soul finds it's truest purpose and passion.

But, why?

Why do women have such a need to give life, to breathe in beauty, and to give their lives away in meaningful ways?

I found the answer in God’s Word.

I grew up a good Baptist girl and read the creation account 100 times…(okay 700 times). Amazingly enough, on the 701th reading I discovered a revelation that amazed me!

You know the story. God created a beautiful garden. Then he scooped up some dust, created Adam, and placed him in the garden. (Clearly explains their love of camping!) But when God chose to "fashion" a woman He formed her from Adam’s flesh (relational aren’t we) and then placed her in the center of the most beautiful place this earth has ever known-the magnificent Garden of Eden.

Imagine as Eve opened her eyes for the first time and saw perfected beauty, tasted exquisite fruits, listened to singing birds and touched the softness of a lily. God instilled in women this desire to create, celebrate and give life. Eve’s name (which means Lifegiver) and her nature where shaped by the place God formed her-- a luscious, perfect Garden.

Because we are daughters of Eve, we, too, long to give life and to surround ourselves with beauty. Woman was created in beauty for beauty.

We were God's beautiful idea.

So why does this matter to us as twenty-first century women? Because it validates our calling to be lifegivers. It resonates within our very being. Our purpose is to give life and to infuse beauty into life around us whether we are single, married, young or old. When we live a lifestyle of lifegiving we begin to understand it is not something we do, or another thing to put on already long lists of demands, rather it is living a passion filled intentional life of loving, risk and care.

As I often say, the domestic divas of the day may tell us how…but Lifegiving tells us why.

Lifegiving is God’s fingerprint on the heart of women. It’s a mindset, a lifestyle, a beautiful touch. It’s who God created us to be.

About Tammy Maltby

Faith, Food, Real People, Real Life

Blog http://tammymaltby.typepad.com/tammyhansonmaltby

Website www.itsagoodlife.tv

I also have an author page on facebook...as my personal facebook is full..

Tammy Maltby is a speaker, author and media personality with a heart for helping women to live rich, authentic lives. Her multifaceted life can be summed up in one word “encouragement”. Tammy’s graceful and transparent style of communication inspires women to live a more honest and real lifestyle. Her passion for beautiful living and relationship-centered hospitality shines in her most recent book, The Christmas Kitchen: A Gathering Place for Making Memories. Tammy is also the author of Confessions of a Good Christian Girl, Lifegiving: Discovering the Secrets to a Beautiful Life, and A Discovery Journal to a Beautiful Life, is coauthor (with Tom Davis) of Confessions of a Good Christian Guy, and is hard at work on The God Who Sees You.

A ten-year cohost of the two time Emmy-winning NRB TV talk show of the year Aspiring Women, Tammy has also been featured on hundreds of radio and television programs, including Focus on the Family, Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey, Life Today with James and Betty Robinson, The 700 Club, Midday Connection, 100 Huntley Street, and CBN’s Living the Life.

Today, along with ministry partner, Michelle Borquez-Thornton, Tammy is spearheading a movement encouraging women to “Start Simply but Simply Start!” As President and Co-Founder of “It’s a Good Life” organization, Tammy and Michelle together are inspiring women to use food and faith as a tool to create community and connection. Once upon a time women cooked together. Now Tammy, along with partner Michelle, have launched the It’s a Good Life Cooking Club to inspire women to invite their friends to come and cook with them and discover great recipes, ways to save, and God Life conversation starters. Ladies night was just given a whole new meaning! It’s not just about how to cook, more importantly it’s about why we cook!

Tammy is the mother of four grown children, two of whom are adopted internationally. She is a doting grandmother to beautiful three-year-old Cohen and lives in Colorado with her husband.