When I was eight years old, I decided that I was going to be a published author someday. Looking at it from that angle you might think, "Well, all kids have crazy dreams when they're that age. When I was eight I wanted to fly to the moon!" And I certainly had my share of those "fly to the moon" type of dreams. But writing was different. Writing was something I was actually good at doing and loved doing. It was a gift. A gift that God had chosen so graciously to give me and when He placed it in my hands, He also placed the dream in my heart. And now I'm going to say something that may or may not surprise you. You have a gift too. Yep, you. The you that is reading this right now and may be scrunching your brow as you scoff, "Me? Yeah, right. I definitely don't have a gift." But you do, friend. Maybe like me, you've known this from a young age. Maybe you've known for as long as you could remember that you were gifted to write or to draw or to speak or to lead or to encourage. Maybe you've known for years what God created you to do and the gifts He gave you to do it. Or maybe you still have absolutely no clue what your gift even looks like. And that's okay. Because whether or not you recognize that you have a gift, there is still a gift from God inside of you. We all have one. He has given each and every one of us talents and gifts in a way that no one else has or can do. He is going to reveal His gift to you in His timing. My sister was nineteen when she discovered that the gift God had given her was teaching kids. But what I love about her story is that she still served God in all the other ways He led her to, even before she truly knew and understood the special gift He'd given her. But what do you do when you already know some of the gifts He's given you? When I decided that I was going to write and be a published author someday, I knew that was one of the gifts God had given me to impact my world for Him. I knew this gift was meant to honor Him. But I had it all figured out my way. I thought I knew exactly how it was going to happen. I was going to write a novel (because it wasn't until I was fifteen that I started writing non-fiction) and I was going to become traditionally published and sell millions of copies of my books and that was how I was going to give my gift back to God. Well, God had very different plans. As the years went by I began to see that He had a completely different writing genre in mind for me. Not only that, but He had a different publishing plan and a different idea completely of what this gift He'd given me would look like in my life. Yet I was tempted to hold onto my idea of things. Because isn't that so easy to do when we are given a God-gift and we come up with our own plan of what to do with it? It's so easy to hold onto our way of doing it. If you hold so tightly to the gift and dream He has given you without giving it back to Him, you will never be able to reach the full potential of the gift He's placed inside you. It might hurt to give it to God and it might not be easy and oh, yes, it might require letting go of the plan you had for things. But it's going to be worth it. Only in giving your dreams back to God can you understand fully why He gave them to you. So take those gifts and dreams He's placed inside your heart and put them back in His hands. Ask Him how He wants to use them in your life. Ask Him what it looks like to live those gifts out His way. And then obey. It's as simple and sometimes as difficult as that. But it's worth it. Oh, trust me, it's so worth it. 11/26/2018 03:34:18 pm
I love this blog post, Isabella because that it something that I've been thinking about lately. For me, all I know is that I love to sing and write but I'm not sure if that's something I like to do or is a God-given gift. Either way, I have to give it back to God. Yesssss. I didn't discover my gift for music until I was about 10 or 11 years old, and I didn't discover my passion for encouraging and counseling until only a year or so ago! It's been SO amazing to look back and see how God has worked in my life and the doors He has opened, that I never even imagined would happen! For sure, not everything has been smooth and a piece of cake, but I can't wait to see how He leads in the future!!
Tanner P
11/26/2018 10:44:56 pm
Thank you for this article! For me, I don't think that I have any really apparent gifts. I think that God is calling me to be a pastor one day, and I do think that I am good at some things that might line up with being Pastor. Something that I found that has been really cool, is how God takes people's strengths and weaknesses and uses them to mold then to His glory. 1/13/2019 01:39:09 am
I especially liked this one because people recognizing their God given talents and using them for His glory is something dear to my heart ❤️ Comments are closed.
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