My friend, Sarah was so excited to give her gifts to her friends because she hand-picked the gifts carefully based on her friends’ likes and what they were good at.
Sarah gave Friend A her gift of scrapbooking materials; great stickers, beautiful pages and elaborate embellishments. Friend A was one of the best at scrapbooking.
Sarah gave Friend B her gift of a beautiful, top-of-the-line, jogging suit because Friend B loved to run and was very competitive with many awards to show for her hard work.
Friend A didn’t really like exercising at all and Friend B was not crafty in the least.
So Sarah was taken back when Friend B opened her gift, looked at Friend A’s gift and said “I’m sorry, Sarah but I would rather have the scrapbooking materials. They are so gorgeous and when the pages are all put together, they tell such a story. I really don’t want this running suit.”
WHAT? …….now this is a hypothetical story. But let’s look at it. Sarah chose gifts specifically for the friends based on what they were good at and what they enjoyed. Even though Friend B was good at running and disliked crafting she wanted what Friend A had because she saw how well Friend A created beautiful things from her gift.
Sometimes we are just as disrespectful to God when He gives us something and we snub our nose, look to our neighbor’s gift and say “no thanks, God. I would rather have what he has.” God gives us spiritual gifts based on His evaluation of us looking at what we’re good at and what we enjoy and for where He knows we will excel.
We need to stop wishing we could sing like so and so and be thankful we have the skill and creativity to work with children. We need to stop wishing we could preach like Franklin Graham or speak like Sheila Walsh and be thankful we have the skill to play the piano or teach Sunday School.
Whatever your spiritual gift is, use it for the glory of the Lord and stop wishing you had a different gift. God picked out your gift based on your heart, your talent and your strive for excellence. Don’t try to return it or trade it for someone else’s because you’ll never get it back. He shops where there are no exchanges and no returns.
Take your gift and use it to make the Giver proud.
2 Corinthians 9;15 – Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
