Month: May 2023

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Spiritual Gifts

“Your spiritual gifts don’t have to impact the globe to matter; you can make a difference where you are, as you are, right now, with the gifts God has given you.”

This is from a devotional magazine called Christ in Our Home and was written by Lisa A. Smith.

The next paragraph presents examples.

“Your spiritual gift might be preaching to thousands, or knowing what to say to a loved one in crisis. Your spiritual gift might be donating a large sum to a charity, or giving the gift of time to a cause that’s important to you. Your spiritual gift might be modern-day miracles of surgery, or the tedious work of mending a broken relationship. With God’s help, none of us is lacking in spiritual gifts.”

As a child, I wanted to be a missionary doctor or maybe a psychiatrist. Then, I learned that I don’t function under stress.

Over the years, I read some books on spiritual gifts in the hope of finding my place in society. Here is a picture of some of those books. I was jealous of a friend who could donate larger amounts of money and more time to the church. She ran a Bible study at the local work release jail too. She did so much more than I ever could.

My current job is in a factory. While I am proud of my employer’s commitment to recycling, I wish I could help people more directly in my working life. But  my depression symptoms  come out when I am stressed which keeps me from those kinds of jobs.

What are your spiritual gifts?

How do you use them?

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101 World Changing Women quotes

I enjoy reading compilations of biographies. This is a children’s book but I bought it and read it anyways.

One person that was discussed was Anne Frank. While hiding from the Nazis from 1942 to 1944, she wrote a diary.

“I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart.” She saw so much evil yet she still wrote this. I fight to hold on to this faith in the goodness of people. Yet, the news of mass shootings and people shooting others for very ridiculous reasons makes me wonder.

“If you want to make something happen that hasn’t happened before you’ve got to allow yourself to make a lot of mistakes.” Björk is a musician. 8 had never heard of her but that is why I like these books. They tell me about people that I have never heard of.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all-in which case you fail by default.” J.K. Rowling took the risk of writing her book while broke.

“There may be tough times, but the difficulties which you face will make you more determined to achieve your objectives and to win against all the odds.” Marta is a soccer player. The short write up on her life describes her father leaving her family when she was one year old. So, her mom had to work outside of the home. She started playing soccer in the street. Despite living in a poor area and financial struggles of her family, she competed in the Women’s World Cup.

Terezinha Guilhermina “sprints blindfolded, alongside a sighted guide runner.” She is blind and competes in the Paralympics. This reminded of the faith walk that I tried to do at 4h camp. I peaked down below the blindfold but it still was scary to walk the course while being guided by another participant. I can’t imagine the level of trust that this must have taken for her to sprint while being guided by a sighted person.

“I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all.” Simone Biles is a gymnast who spent sometime in foster care and raised by her grandparents.