Be Thankful For and Follow Your Talents

Personally, I believe that each person has something that they are good at or some type of type that God gave them but as people, we often think about the talents that we do not have or the talents that we desire so rather than using the talent(s) that we have been given, often times, we miss out on the bigger purpose or plan that God has for us.

For a long time, this was something that I was very guilty of as I wanted to explore interests of mine that my talents did not necessarily fit. This is not to say that we cannot get better at something that we are not good, obviously, as we have to train and/or practice at everything in life including what we are good at so the Allen Iverson attitude of “it’s just practice” is not one that we should adhere to.

While I will never claim that I am a great writer or anything or the sorts, I have witnessed how my writings have matured over the years and have heard many people say of others that the respective individual(s) make it look easy and it comes naturally to them as though they were born to perform. Regardless of where you stand on the idea of being born to do something, even with a great talent, we must build on it: “As every man hath received the gift, [even so] minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).

From my own life, I know that if I did not use my writing abilities then they would be as they were when I enrolled into college. Although I have always been able to write in a sense—that is, I could write stories and create things—I did not always enjoy the writing process. To me, the idea of writing was not what I wanted to do and like most young boys, I wanted to do something in sports but this dream came to an end rather quickly but despite this, I showed little interest in writing until later in life but scripture is clear that we should not overlook or toss aside what God has given to us: “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery” (1 Timothy 4:14).

Regardless of what we are good at, we should do our best to use the gifts of God to bring honor and praise to Him. Many athletes have discussed that what they do, they do because of God and they honor Him not just with their athletic abilities but with praise, honor, and worship. This is true whether hitting a home run, scoring a touchdown, making a basket, and on and on and I enjoy seeing an athlete thank God just as I do anyone else who thanks God for a job well done but we should be just as thankful in the bad times just as we are in the good times because God is in control and that’s enough to be thankful of: “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).