Tag Archives: God-given gifts

You Are More Important Than You Realize

Leave a reply

You Are More Important Than You Realize

You Are More Important Than You Realize 

It’s notable to mention that it is highly likely that you are more important than you realize.  I would venture to guess that your gifts and the roles that you play probably hold far more weight in the kingdom of God than you probably give them credit for.  One day when we stand before God and give an answer for how we used our gifts and fulfilled our purpose, it will be exciting to see the magnitude of our influence here on this earth.  I believe that God thinks that YOU are a pretty big deal! 😉 

You are more important than you realize. God thinks that YOU are a pretty big deal!

Click To Tweet

As we are coming to the close of a school year, it’s a good reminder for educators, staff, students, and parents alike. I’ve mentioned it before and the same is true now…you might be making a difference in the lives of others without even realizing it.

You and your gifts are necessary

God has given each and every person here on this earth a unique set of gifts and a purpose to fulfill.  Each gift and purpose is vital to God’s plan.  In fact, the Bible uses the analogy of a body and its different parts to demonstrate this point.  Each part of the body is necessary in order for the body to function properly (as God intended), and each God-given gift, role, and purpose is necessary in order for God’s kingdom, or the “body of Christ”, to function properly.

We are the body of Christ, and just as a body has many parts, so does the body of Christ.  The parts are placed exactly where God wants them (1 Corinthians 12:18).  Our gifts are part of this body.  There are a lot of them, and they all have different functions.  They all work together as part of a whole.  Every part is necessary.  We need all of the parts, just like God needs all of our gifts.

“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well…” Romans 12:4-6 (NLT)

It’s tempting, but unwise, to compare our gifts with those of others

Continue reading →

Stay in Your Lane

Leave a reply

Stay in Your Lane title image

Stay in Your Lane

My family recently took our first ski trip. My husband, Eric, had skied before when he was growing up, but the kids and I had never skied. This was new territory for us. To be very honest, my first experience with skiing was not fabulous. Consequently the majority of my frustrations didn’t even come from the dislike of skiing, but from the pressure and insistence of others who seemingly found it impossible for anyone to dislike skiing. During this whole ordeal I started seeing a biblical parallel…stay in your lane, and I’m not talking about a physical skiing lane although that’s probably a relevant lesson also! 😉

First, ski lessons

I’ll admit that I was a bit apprehensive from the start. Although I love the mountains, I’m not a big fan of cold weather. I’m also not very athletic. Coordination is not a particular skill of mine. For some reason my head knows what to do but my arms, legs, hands, and feet don’t always cooperate. I’m also not particularly fond of falling or getting hurt, which I knew would be inevitable when learning to ski in my mid-40s. I’m not quite as physically resilient as my kiddos.

Pre Crash photo

This was my last time on skis

Nevertheless, I’m a brave soul, so I proceeded with a fairly open mind. My daughter and I signed up for ski lessons (ignoring my husband’s advice to “just watch YouTube videos”). I knew about an hour into our 3 hour lesson that skiing was NOT for me. However, I pressed on with the lesson. After all, what kind of message would I be sending to my daughter to start something and not finish it? I’m not a quitter, and I don’t like to be defeated. That being said though, I typically know my boundaries and my personal preferences. I quickly learned that I did not like skiing, no matter how hard I tried to master the skill.

I opted not to ski the rest of day. Instead, I just enjoyed observing. The next day, I attempted the bunny slopes again. Then, against my better judgement, I allowed my husband to convince me to graduate up to the next size slope. Let’s just say a crash was involved, which resulted in a hurt elbow and knee and me removing my skis and marching the rest of the way down instead. That ended my attempts at skiing for the rest of the trip, even though in hindsight it’s kind of a funny memory now.

Why is it NOT okay for me to dislike skiing?!

The main problem I encountered though was not my inability to ski or my lack of love for it but instead the confrontations of people who insisted on my love and appreciation of skiing. It seemed unfathomable to some people that I just didn’t like it. I was consistently being pressured to keep trying, don’t give up, you’ll get the hang of it, you’ll like it if you just keep trying, you just need to overcome your fear, and on and on. I felt like people were trying to force me to do something that I KNEW internally was just not me, not in my wheelhouse, and not a part of my preferences. Why couldn’t people just understand that?!

To me it’s kind of like eating salmon. I don’t care how many times I try it (and believe me I keep trying it over and over…for years) or how it’s prepared, I hate salmon. It triggers my gag reflex. Bleh! Or…like running. You know those people that live for the next 5K or marathon? I’m not one of those either. I love walking. Running…not so much….unless something is chasing me. But then again, you have those people who insist on running being the best, most exhilarating form of exercise, and they want everyone else to love it just as much as they do. Have you ever met those people?

Maybe not everyone is a skier. Maybe some people are skiers, and some are runners, and maybe some are just observers or hikers or fisherman (another situation where I’d rather just sit and observe or ride along and read a book). Could it possibly be that maybe, just maybe, everyone can have different preferences, and hobbies, and roles? Might it not work out even better if people were different and had different tastes and different talents? Wouldn’t it be HORRIBLE if everyone were exactly the same?!

Stay in your lane—know and operate within your particular preferences, place, gifts, and talents

Continue reading →

The Benefits of Service Learning

Leave a reply

The Benefits of Service Learning

In the class I teach at the local community college, the students are required to complete 4 hours of service learning. At the end of our course, these students are required to do a presentation of their service learning experience. This past week was our final week of class (it’s a short-term, 10-week class), and they conducted their presentations and presented their Vision Boards. It was by far my favorite week of class! Talk about feel-good, uplifting class sessions…this was a perfect way to end our course on a high note.

It didn’t start like that

At the beginning of the semester a large number of the students aren’t terribly excited about this “required volunteer” component (sounds like an oxymoron right?). In fact some of them are just downright mad!

I hear comments like…

“Why do I HAVE to volunteer?”

“You mean we can’t get paid for this work?!”

“I don’t have time to do service learning.”

“This seems like such a waste of time.”

By the end of our class I love seeing the turnaround in many of their attitudes and perspectives. They start to see why service learning is so beneficial, not only to those they serve, but to them as well.

What is Service Learning?

Service Learning incorporates learning with meaningful community service and promotes volunteerism toward meaningful social causes that interest people/students as an individuals. This type of activity allows individuals to develop real-world skills while contributing to their community at the same time.

At the local college where I teach we’ve adopted a definition of service learning as an experiential education that includes:

  1. Student participation in an organized service activity that reinforces specific course learning outcomes
  2. Student identification and response to community need(s)
  3. Structured time for student reflection and connection of the service experience to learning

At my church we might identify these activities as our Love Your Neighbor Outreaches (both locally and globally). At our church we believe that saved people, serve people. We do this by finding opportunities to use the gifts, talents, and resources that God has given us to serve others.

What are some of the benefits of Service Learning?

Continue reading →

Prayer for You This Year–2018

Leave a reply
Prayer for You This Year 2018

Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

Prayer for You This Year–2018

As many people start the year with a fresh start and New Year’s Resolutions, it’s a time to look toward the upcoming year. The same is true for me. I’ll be participating with my church in a 21 day challenge involving 21 days of prayer, discipline and bible study. During the month of January, I will be spending some time in concentrated prayer. As part of my prayer time, I will be spending time praying for my blog, readers, and subscribers. I plan on praying for each person on my subscriber list individually.

There will be some general areas that I will be praying for each of you, which I’ll detail below. However, I’d also like to take this opportunity to reach out to you and see if you have any specific needs or prayer requests that you would like me to pray about. I would love to hear from you!

You can let me know your requests by:

  1. Posting a comment below (at the bottom of this page)
  2. Sending a message through my contact page by clicking here
  3. Sending me an email at tracy at happyhealthyandprosperous dot com (I have to list the email this way to avoid those crazy spam robots! :P)

I will add your specific requests to my list, and I will commit to praying for you and your needs. If you don’t have any specific needs, please know that you are still being prayed for by name anyway!

General areas I’ll be praying for

  • Spiritual growth and relationship with God and for you to also grow in wisdom stature and favor like Jesus did
  • Health, healing and emotional well-being
  • Relationships with others in your life
  • Work
  • Finances and prosperity
  • Gifts, calling and purpose
  • Direction
  • Strength and courage
  • Peace
  • Open doors for you this year and close the wrong ones
  • Experience God’s love this year

My prayer for you this year…

Continue reading →

Ask God About Your Gifts And Purpose

Leave a reply

Ask God About Your Gifts And Purpose...He is your artist and author.

Ask God About Your Gifts And Purpose

This past week we talked about how you have to look for and discover your gifts. It’s kind of like you’re a detective on a case trying to solve a mystery. One of the steps of the search process is to ask God about your gifts and purpose. After all, He’s the one who created you! If anybody would know what your gifts are and how you are supposed to use them it would be God.

I guess you could liken it to inquiring about a painting. Who would you ask if you had questions about the details of a painting? The artist, of course. What about a book that has left you with some questions? Who would you ask if you wanted to know more than what was on the surface? You would ask the author! The creators of the works have all of the knowledge and the inside scoop. They knew what they had in mind when they created their work.

God: Artist and Author

Similarly, God is your creator. God is your artist. You are His Masterpiece.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

God is the also the author who has already written your story. Because of that, He already knows how it ends!

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 (KJV)  

God is both artist and author.

Click To Tweet

Therefore, when you have questions about yourself and how you were made, Continue reading →

Become a Detective to Discover Your Gifts

Leave a reply

You may not automatically know what our gifts and purpose are. However, it is your responsibility to discover them! It’s going to take some craftiness though. You’ll have to start a process of self-discovery and searching. In a sense, you will need to become a detective! You will need to start looking for “clues” to solve your case—the case to discover your gifts.

Become a Detective to Discover Your Gifts

We’ve talked off and on lately about how God has given each of us gifts and how to discover your gifts. I recently spoke at a women’s conference about this very subject. This week, I’d like to share with you some of the first steps to discover your gifts that I shared with them.

You may not automatically know what our gifts and purpose are. However, it is your responsibility to discover them! It’s going to take some craftiness though. You’ll have to start a process of self-discovery and searching. In a sense, you will need to become a detective! You will need to start looking for “clues” to solve your case—the case to discover your gifts. 

Become a detective and look for clues to find out what your gifts are. #discoveryourgifts

Click To Tweet

Now, I will tell you that it’s not something that is quick, nor will you discover your gifts overnight. It’s going to be a process that takes some time. You also may not get the full picture right away, maybe only bits and pieces at a time OVER time.  Much like a detective doesn’t always solve a crime right away.

Become a good detective

First of all, to be a good detective, you have to document everything. You have to write things down and go back to them to look for clues, patterns, and themes. A detective can’t remember everything. Therefore, a notebook is extremely important in order for them to document their journey and solve the case.

This is no different for you when you are on the case to discover your gifts. Like a good detective, YOU will need a notebook or a journal to write your discoveries down. You need to take notes along the way, and answer questions. Continue reading →

We Can Use What We Have To Serve Others

3 Replies

We Can Use What We Have To Serve Others...What is YOUR Olive Oil and Wine?

“And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”” Mark 12:30-31 (NLT)

We Can Use What We Have To Serve Others

I mentioned previously in the post about taking steps of incremental obedience (as opposed to “leaps of faith”) that I was reading the devotional plan “How to Neighbor” by Pastor Craig Groeschel from Life.Church on the YouVersion Bible app.  I started the plan because it goes along nicely with my current studies of serving others. One of the things I’m learning is that some of the steps we need to take in serving others is to use what we have at our disposal. We don’t need to wait until we have what we THINK we need.  We first need to step out and start serving where we can. 

Don’t wait until you have what you think you need–Step out & start serving others now.

Click To Tweet

My church is preparing for “Love Day” which is part of a National Serve Day in which over 275 churches across the globe are taking part.  As part of our preparation my church small group is reading through and doing a study on Dino Rizzo’s book, Servolution.  So far it’s a great book and an easy read with excellent anecdotal stories!  It really will get you excited about following Jesus’ example and instructions of serving others, as does the “How to Neighbor” plan and sermon series.  Both give some really good, practical ideas for serving.  You know me…I love practical steps! 😉 I’ve already stepped out and tried a few of the ideas myself!

Use what we have in order to serve…like the Good Samaritan

In part of our study of the book, we read through the story of the Good Samaritan. Here’s the story…

“Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”” Luke 10:30-37 (NLT)

Olive Oil and Wine Continue reading →

Your Gifts Are Intended to Point People to God

Leave a reply

Your Gifts Are Intended to Point People to God

Your Gifts Are Intended to Point People to God 

Last week we discussed how your gift will make room for you.  We also mentioned that our gifts should advance the kingdom of heaven.  One of the primary purposes of our gifts is to point people to God.  Through our gifts, people will see God in us.  People will see that God gave each of us a variety of unique talents and abilities that could have only come from God.  Our gifts can serve as an avenue to reach people for God or to speak into the lives of others.

“So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11, 12 (NLT) 

One of the primary purposes of our gifts is to point people to God.

Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, you CAN use your gift without acknowledging God.

It is completely possible to operate in your gifts and use them well but still not point people to God.  Unfortunately, we see it every day in the secular world.  You don’t have to be Christian to be gifted—God has gifted EVERYONE.  You also don’t have to be Christian to figure out that you can use your gifts to become prosperous.  There are droves of celebrities worldwide that are not Christians.  They have discovered their gifts and have used them to get wealth, fame, honor and influence.  God MEANT for our gifts to do this…but that’s only half of their purpose.  Additionally, God intended for our gifts to direct others back to Him, to point people to God which is where the gifts came from in the first place.  We need to keep in mind that someday God will hold us accountable for how we used our gifts too.

God is absolutely big enough and powerful enough to not only use our gifts to bless us but to point people to Him without it removing any of the benefits.  We will NOT suffer if we use our gifts to glorify God.   Continue reading →