“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10
I tend to compare myself to others. I know I shouldn’t, but I still do. Since God is still working on me, I expect to get better about that eventually. What I have to remind myself is that everyone has different gifts. I can’t be good at everything, BUT I can use whatever gift God gave me to glorify him. I can let him use me to bless others. One of the things I’ve been wanting to do more of is write, but I feel lost as to where to start, so I blog as a creative outlet. But blogging doesn’t seem like anything special, certainly not anything good enough for God to use. He has, though. In fact, I feel very honored and humbled because yesterday I followed a comment on my “counting tears” post, and the commenter wrote on her own blog that God used me to speak directly to her heart and answer a specific prayer. Wow. That touched me so much. There have also been others who have left the most wonderful comments or sent me emails about something I’ve said in a blog post that touched them in some way. I've been taught yet again that I should never underestimate what God can do.
The only things I can remember being passionate about doing were: becoming a mom (did that!), teaching (doing that with homeschooling!), writing (just not all those dreaded lit class papers!), and photography. I’ve loved photography for as long as I can remember, but no one in my sphere of influence thought it was a “real job”, so I never tried to do it in “real life”. Over the years, I did keep it up as a favorite hobby, and after much discussion and encouragement, my husband convinced me that we should start a photography business--and we did, last December. This first year, we’re really just gearing up and trying to discover exactly where our passion is, so that next year we’ll really try to kick it (the business) into gear. But here again, I wondered how taking pictures of people would really glorify God. Sure, creating tangible memories is a wonderful thing, and the photographs in my own home do bless me daily. I still felt like it was sort of “lesser” talent, though. That was until we discovered NILMDTS. This really is something that blesses families going through probably the most difficult and painful moments of their lives, and God has chosen to allow us to be part of this blessing. Again, I’m amazed and humbled. (Please take a few minutes to read my previous post about NILMDTS. Since I wrote that post, we've had two more NILMDTS sessions.)
Each day when I wake up, I thank God for another day, and I ask him to use me today to bless somebody. I will continue to ask God to help me use all the gifts he’s given me, even those that seem insignificant. I know he will, if I let him. I may not have much to offer, but if I bring God my little lunch of loaves and fishes, then he can make a feast out of it. Not long ago, I found that Erma Bombeck quote near the top of my sidebar. It also resides on the bulletin board next to my computer. I want to live by it. I want to be able to say to God someday, that I used every single bit of talent he gave me and didn't let any of it go to waste.
The only things I can remember being passionate about doing were: becoming a mom (did that!), teaching (doing that with homeschooling!), writing (just not all those dreaded lit class papers!), and photography. I’ve loved photography for as long as I can remember, but no one in my sphere of influence thought it was a “real job”, so I never tried to do it in “real life”. Over the years, I did keep it up as a favorite hobby, and after much discussion and encouragement, my husband convinced me that we should start a photography business--and we did, last December. This first year, we’re really just gearing up and trying to discover exactly where our passion is, so that next year we’ll really try to kick it (the business) into gear. But here again, I wondered how taking pictures of people would really glorify God. Sure, creating tangible memories is a wonderful thing, and the photographs in my own home do bless me daily. I still felt like it was sort of “lesser” talent, though. That was until we discovered NILMDTS. This really is something that blesses families going through probably the most difficult and painful moments of their lives, and God has chosen to allow us to be part of this blessing. Again, I’m amazed and humbled. (Please take a few minutes to read my previous post about NILMDTS. Since I wrote that post, we've had two more NILMDTS sessions.)
Each day when I wake up, I thank God for another day, and I ask him to use me today to bless somebody. I will continue to ask God to help me use all the gifts he’s given me, even those that seem insignificant. I know he will, if I let him. I may not have much to offer, but if I bring God my little lunch of loaves and fishes, then he can make a feast out of it. Not long ago, I found that Erma Bombeck quote near the top of my sidebar. It also resides on the bulletin board next to my computer. I want to live by it. I want to be able to say to God someday, that I used every single bit of talent he gave me and didn't let any of it go to waste.
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