the calling

So yesterday, sitting in church, discussion arose regarding some of the Big-Man-Upstairs' blessings. Someway or another, we've all been blessed at some point.

I mean, we're alive, so there begins blessing numero uno.

We all wake up every day (hopefully?) and fall asleep at some point during the night.

We somehow manage to be clothed in public (also hopefully.) and we grab a bite to eat every now and again.

All made possible by The Holy One.

So what else are we blessed with?

Character

Intelligence

Poise

The abilty to stand upright

(and not drag knuckles (hopefully))

Family

Friends

Sunshine

Rain

The earth

Our homes

There are quite a few more, but my time to blog at work is just so limited.

And talent.

Yep, thats right. Each and every one of us has a talent. Or a gift. Something special that we were blessed with, that we are especially skilled.

Could be writing. Reading. Speaking. Could be drawing. Or could be a character trait that is particularly prominent in ourselves. Compassion. Humor. Warmth. You may be the best hop-scotcher in the world. Maybe you bake the best pineapple-upside down cake EVER. Or you give really great hugs. Maybe you're a born-educator. Or a learner. Maybe you have a lot of natural wisdom, or just a gracious amount of common sense. Maybe you're a singer, or a member of the Olympic bobsled team. Whatever it is, its yours and you're really good at it.

But what if you haven't found it yet? Who knows what we're really good at? It could be something so simple. You may just have a really great smile, and you don't even know it. Nonetheless, God gave it to you.

Now, back on track with the blessings here. So if we are all lucky enough to be blessed with a different talent, in theory, doesn't that make us, as a whole, a really talented group of people? I mean just saying, but if we were all kind enough to share our little sliver of awesome-ness, doesn't that mean we'd always have the most skilled craftsman (or woman) of something there to help us out? Isn't that a little reassuring? Knowing that you have the best of something helping you with your something that you aren't the best at? Think about it.

The challenge during the discussion at church yesterday was this:

Find your talent, and use it to benefit the Kingdom or God.

Because if your talent goes untapped, and is eventually wasted,

then we are robbing the Kingdom of what would've been

the best of something.

If your talent remains hidden, and in the shadows of the things we're all just okay at, we're robbing the world of what could-have-been.

So I'm going to pass this challenge to you.

What is your blessing?

What is the gift that God gave you?

And once you figure it out,

What now?

How will you use it?

Now, lets parallel this to our everyday. Army wives, this one is headed your way. We spend our time supporting. And lets face it, as a whole, we're all really good at that. But if we could all contribute our slice of greatness towards the whole, wouldn't that make us all completely great? Say if one of us is really great at organizing, and then one if us is a really great baker, and then another one of us is an awesome speaker, and another one is a talented writer, and someone else is has really great methods of persuasion. Before you know it, a charity event to raise money for our Soldiers was not only just organized, but funded by donations, advertised and complete with baked goods to boot. If we could all just contribute our talent, "us" as a whole would be able to accomplish anything.

So on the parallel, here is my challenge to you:

Go out of your way to share your talent.

Just stand up, offer your resource, and encourage others to do the same.

Before long, anything you can put your minds and TALENTS to will be yours.

For everyone else.

Find your talent.

And hey, if you already have yours, feel free to let someone know whats theirs may be.

Because I know if anyone else is like me, you have nooo idea what your gift might be.

So find your talent and then share it.

Do something to benefit the world around you.

Don't let such a precious blessing go to waste because you were to scared or too blind to share it.

And be thankful for it, because Someone thought you were important enough to hold such an important treasure.