Romans 12:6-8 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
My Thoughts
I love this verse... it says to me "God made you, and He made you just like He needed you to be! What you can do is valuable, it is a gift from God! Use it as the gift it is and use it to help others!"
For so long I thought that God didn't give me a gift...nothing that stood out.... there are lots of things I can do..I am more that "Jack of many trades, but master of none." I have always been a bit crafty and can pick up most crafts pretty easy...but I have never been wonderful at any of them. I can loom knit but I make hats and scarves and shawls and sometimes blankets...and I can crochet a bit...and do the same with that. I use to make cards...but never got published in a magazine, even though I tried!! I made pretty cards...but as wonderful as that is it was not exactly like being an "artist"...one that could make money!! I have painted shirts... sewed pretty things for my kids when they were little. I have painted paintings...I am ok at that! I don't sing...in fact when Madison was little, like 3 she would say "Momma pease (sic) don't sing!" And she can't even sing herself.
When I worked .. I was a hard worker... a perfectionist in many ways...but somehow never a really stand out worker... I was liked and appreciated...but I was not "going places." And even though I have had a passion for many things it has never been a passion that would "take me places."
I don't have a good memory for birthdays, or even things people tell me. I care, I care deeply about people...but sometimes it may not look that way just because I don't always remember who told me what...I just don't have that attention for that kind of detail no matter how much I try.
Some people are good business people... some housewives are perfect housekeepers!! There are nurses, thank God for them...I could not do what they do!! And teachers who make sure that our children know so much in so little time (not my gift either). There are people wonderful with numbers and laws... I am good with numbers ... but again not a master of them. The list goes on and on.
I use to let the devil really beat me up about not being "gifted" at anything. It could really get me down. I would hear that God made each one of us special, but could never find out where my "special" was!! Then I came across this verse and in it it said "And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly."
One thing I knew about me was that I was kind. To find out it was a gift!! Wow.. to get to know that being sweet to others could actually be a gift!!! Maybe I was special after all!! People all my life have told me how sweet I am. I often stop and ask myself what it is that I do that is so sweet...I can't really figure it out. And as sweet as I could be, and as sweet as I wanted to be I never realized that I could use that "kindness" for God. Once I realized it was a gift, I started making an effort to use it that way. To make sure that people saw God's sweetness and kindness in me. I want people to know that my kindness, my being sweet, is a gift that come through me but it is a gift straight from God to them. I don't have to be a great painter, or a nurse, wonderful with numbers or laws. I don't have to be able to sing (thank goodness!). I just have to be me...and let God work through me utilizing the gift that He designed especially for me. I, me, Jeannie Phillips get to just go around being sweet to others! I get to use something that I am already good at, and somehow, even if I never see it, it makes a difference in the world, if I use it to glorify God!!
We all have something that we are good at, something that comes naturally. Something that we see as easy and ordinary because it does come so naturally. If we just stop and look at our lives. What we are good at matters, it is after all one of God's gifts to us!! What we are good at can be used for God! So often we don't see our gifts as gifts, oh but they are!! Take a look at what you can do and ask God, "How can I use my gift to serve you!!"
P.S. If you are good at organizing and cleaning you are more than welcome to bless me!!! If you lived in my mind you would know that what you can do is, for sure, gift!!! ;o)
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