Discovering and exploring.
I have always been a person that would rather not be the center of attention. However, probably due to the fact that I don’t have a shy bone in my body and relatively few inhibitions, many times in my life I inadvertently find myself in that exact position. In the past I have even consciously tried to stay in the background, but then people always assume that there is something wrong with me and become concerned regardless of my reassurance that I am just fine.
Recent changes in my life have me looking at this part of my personality in an entirely different light.
The New Testament has been my focus of study this year. As I was reading a parable in Matthew, which I have read and re-read countless times in my life, I was confronted with an idea that I never would have realized on my own. Talents are so incredibly individual that sometimes recognition of them in our self can be difficult and sometimes impossible without help. The parable teaches that we are to improve and build upon our talents or they will be taken from us. It is now just dawning on me that the first thing that we must accomplish is discovering and acknowledging what talents we have already been blessed with and then improve upon them.
Never in a million years would I have counted my outgoing, bold attitude as a talent and actually most of the time I look at it as a negative feature because it overwhelms and intimidates a lot of people.....at least at first. Comments made by several friends recently brought this into a better perspective for me (and they will probably never even realize they made such a huge difference in the way I view this part of myself). The talent which I have discovered, that I never would have counted as a talent, is that of openness. By that I mean not being reserved about meeting new people and extending a hand of fellowship. I can and will without reserve or even thinking about it, talk to anyone. Even from a young age, much to the chagrin of my mother, I would seek out anyone and everyone to whom I could talk.
Why have I never thought of this as a talent before?
The better question is…..
What is a talent that you have that you have never before considered a talent?
I have always been a person that would rather not be the center of attention. However, probably due to the fact that I don’t have a shy bone in my body and relatively few inhibitions, many times in my life I inadvertently find myself in that exact position. In the past I have even consciously tried to stay in the background, but then people always assume that there is something wrong with me and become concerned regardless of my reassurance that I am just fine.
Recent changes in my life have me looking at this part of my personality in an entirely different light.
The New Testament has been my focus of study this year. As I was reading a parable in Matthew, which I have read and re-read countless times in my life, I was confronted with an idea that I never would have realized on my own. Talents are so incredibly individual that sometimes recognition of them in our self can be difficult and sometimes impossible without help. The parable teaches that we are to improve and build upon our talents or they will be taken from us. It is now just dawning on me that the first thing that we must accomplish is discovering and acknowledging what talents we have already been blessed with and then improve upon them.
Never in a million years would I have counted my outgoing, bold attitude as a talent and actually most of the time I look at it as a negative feature because it overwhelms and intimidates a lot of people.....at least at first. Comments made by several friends recently brought this into a better perspective for me (and they will probably never even realize they made such a huge difference in the way I view this part of myself). The talent which I have discovered, that I never would have counted as a talent, is that of openness. By that I mean not being reserved about meeting new people and extending a hand of fellowship. I can and will without reserve or even thinking about it, talk to anyone. Even from a young age, much to the chagrin of my mother, I would seek out anyone and everyone to whom I could talk.
Why have I never thought of this as a talent before?
The better question is…..
What is a talent that you have that you have never before considered a talent?
posted by B at
10:28 PM
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