What gift do you bring to the table? God has blessed our lives on earth with many gifts or skills. We need to stop and take some time to appreciate this and realize there is no gift too little or invaluable. So to get folks thinking, I brainstormed the following list. All of them come from what I have seen in my friends and family. I hope this list will give you a few grins. I also hope you will spot some of your gifts and some the gifts of others as you patiently read my list. And I hope you thought of many gifts that I left off of this list.
- Changing a diaper without gagging
- Navigating new places without GPS
- Making a killer charcuterie board
- Cake decorating
- Writing poems to express your thoughts and emotions
- Prompting people to talk while you listen attentively
- Making friends with total strangers anywhere you go
- Noticing details that everyone else misses
- Maintaining a gorgeous lawn
- Finding a bargain
- Explaining difficult concepts in a way that is understandable
- Frying an egg over easy without breaking the yolk
- Encouraging the discouraged
- Gift wrapping
- Telling great stories
- Making people laugh
- Having a contagious laugh
- Forgetting grievances
- Finding new ways of doing things
- Discerning lies
- Recognizing manipulation and not giving in to it
- Only making positive social media posts
- Being supportive of positive posts on social media
- Scrolling past negativity on social media
- Making phone calls or texts to check on folks
- Inviting people to join you in fun endeavors
- Catching fish or hunting
- Making a great meal from only the stuff left in the pantry
- Picking good movies
- Reading
- Unhurriedly stopping to listen
- Praying for others
- Praying for your enemies
- Caring for animals
- Playing board games or card games with friends
- Playing video games
- Driving with ease and confidence
- Smiling
- Hugging
- Keeping disorganized people organized
- Caring for people who are ill
- Understanding nutrition
- Dog training
- Training little people
- Making learning interesting
- Caring for the elderly
- Understanding and explaining laws
- Finding the good in a bad situation
- Having a naturally sunny disposition
- Knowing when to quit
- Knowing when to get busy
- Loving work
- Loving staying at home
- Loving to travel
- Reading great literature
- Loving to learn
- Fixing technology
- Enthusiasm about exercising
- Loving music
- Being at home in the great outdoors
- Spotting the fingerprints of God in an ordinary day
- Spotting the fingerprints of God during bad days
- Dancing
- Balancing a budget
- Keeping plants alive…green thumb
- Learning then applying that new knowledge to improve
- Accepting others as they are
- Speaking more than one language
- Cleaning anything to a shine
- Organizing a closet
- Creating great outfits on a budget
- Talking folks off the figurative ledge
- Decorating on a budget
- Following instructions
- Filling in when there is a need
- (Keep this list going in your head)
What can we do with all these gifts? Here are a few take-aways.
Recognize that we need each other because we can’t be all things and value what you have to give and what others have given you. Appreciate that this list is endless and there is enough for everyone so criticism and jealousy are a scarcity mindset that must be eliminated because we need other folks to do what we can’t. And understand that any gift on this list can be shared to develop the relationships in our life because God works through relationships.