Gifts and Talents

We all have gifting and talents. To be happy and content in life we need to follow our true gifting and talents.

Take me for instance. I love to sing. I drive everyone crazy with my singing, especially if I have ear buds in listening to my iPod. I love to quietly sing along. At least, I assumed I was being quiet…until my husband told me otherwise. “You’re loud and off-key,” he informed me in his best I-love-you-but-you-have-to-stop-this voice!

When I was younger, me and my friends sang in a group in church. I had a reasonably good voice then, but after a couple of years of allergy triggered laryngitis, my voice lost some of its umph! Well, maybe most of its umph! Because of that, I would never sing in public unless it’s in a rather large choir. I know my gifting limitations.

My friend, Jan, struggles with writing a full length novel. Let me say right now that she is a very gifted writer. She writes wonderful devotions and short stories. She has ideas for fabulous novels, but feels frustrated with the struggle to complete one.  I have the opposite problem. Once I have the idea for a novel and start writing, my brain won’t shut down. My characters become live people clamoring to be heard, demanding my attention. If I had time to sit down for a solid few days, I could complete a novel in that time.

Jan writes awesome devotions. I love them. Ask me to write a devotional and I could, but it would take time and a lot of thought.  Ask me to write a book of devotions and I would freak out. I’d have to be on tranquilizers, it would stress me out so much. Yet it seems to just flow out of Jan.

God can always change or add to our gifting and talents, and sometimes He does. What is your gift, skill or talent?