Search Results for: gifts

Using Your Gifts

Backstory

If you love what you do for a living, you will never work a day in your life. I have found that to be so true. It happens when you use the gifts you were given.

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Using Your Gift – #637

What’s it all about? Why are we put here on this earth? What is expected of us?

There comes a time in life when you start asking those questions and looking for answers. I have. Perhaps you have too.

Each of us have been given different gifts and I believe we are expected to use them to make the world a better place. Some of us can affect things on a global scale, others have little influence beyond our own kitchen. But I think we fulfill our destiny when we figure out our God-given gifts and use them daily for the better good.

God didn’t impart them to you just to hang around. He expects you to use them. Whether you are playing the piano, crocheting afghans, tending flowers, curing diseases, or kissing children good night. You do it very well.

You may be the organizer, or the one who comes up with the good ideas. Or the one who moves things from discussion to action. Your gift may be that you can give of your time, or your money.

Choose the big world or your small intimate world and go make it a better place. It’s expected of you and it pleases God when you do.

I like what Maya Angelou said about this, “My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

P.S.

My jobs have always involved writing, composing, presenting thoughts to the world. I was sure my children appreciated the intellectual significance of what I create at that keyboard. Then I heard someone ask my son what I do for a living. He responded, “She types.”

[Show #637]

Gifts to Strangers

Most of us look forward to being with family and friends on Christmas Day. You’ll hear folks talking for weeks ahead of time about how they will spend the day.

But there are those whose Christmas day will be a repeat of a normal work day. They have pulled the holiday shift and they’ll be away from loved ones on that special day.

If you interact with someone on the job on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, you can help make their holiday a little brighter. Share holiday cheer with them – no matter what the circumstance.

My mom used to wrap up a dozen or so gifts of a few homemade cookies and take them with her, if she was traveling on a holiday. She’d pass them on to the toll taker on the highway or the counter clerk at the airport or the taxi driver.

Even if you don’t do presents, you can give the gift of your patience and your smile; especially if you’re in a situation that has others upset – like delays at the airport or cold weather traffic conditions. It’s so easy to become dour when our holiday plans go awry. You want to blame someone or take it out on somebody.

When that moods starts to devour you, remember that you have a choice. It’s not the circumstance that decides your mood; you decide. You can choose to be angry and battered or you can be happy throughout the incident, whatever it is.

So as the holidays rush upon us, don’t give in to becoming the Grinch who stole Christmas. Help bring peace on earth to your little corner of the world, no matter what. Merry Christmas.

[Show #512]

Gifts from the Heart

It was the early 1800s and a young couple newly married had lots of love, but very little money. As they face their first Christmas together, he strokes her beautiful, waist length auburn hair and wonders how he can possibly afford a Christmas gift for her that is worthy of all the happiness she has brought him.

As she watches him dress for work, opening his pocket watch to check the time, she is filled with love and wants desperately to show it by getting him a gift for Christmas that he will treasure.

On Christmas eve, he arrives home and she is still hurrying about preparing a special dinner, a scarf covering her head and an apron protecting her dress.

He pulls her to the couch and hands her the gift he chose for her – a beautiful sterling silver hair ornament that he envisioned holding her lovely hair high on her head. She presents her gift to him – a gold watch fob for the pocket watch that he treasures so.

He sheepishly admits he no longer has the watch. He sold it to buy her hair clip. She slowly removes the scarf from her head, revealing short cropped hair. She cut and sold her flowing locks to buy the watch fob.

The physical gifts were now useless to each of them. But the love with which they were acquired will see them through, whatever lies ahead.

May your Christmas be merry and full of love.

[Show #466]

God Given Gifts

I believe in the truth of the God-given gift. When you receive one, through your genes or your upbringing or the opportunities you’ve received, I believe that you are expected to use that gift, not waste it or let it lie unused until it just dies away. It can be as simple as baking good pies or as important as a new invention or the cure for a dread disease.

Some people get directed down a path early on that does not allow them to develop or use their talents. It’s almost like that’s what retirement is for. When you retire from the tasks you were required to do all your life, you can start using your talents for the rest of your time on earth.

And today, we are blessed with the good health that allows most of us extra time to spend using our God-given gifts.

When Kirsty Ally did cartwheels on the TV show, Dancing with the Stars, she was called the poster girl for folks in their 60s and what they can accomplish. The rest of us may not go tumbling across the dance floor, but if we are still of sound mind and body, retirement is indeed a time to use your God-given gifts to make the world a better place.

If you have not gotten around to that yet, you may want to give it a whirl.

[Show #424]

Gifts From The Heart

As she watches him dress for work, opening his pocket watch to check the time, she is filled with love and wants desperately to show it by getting him a gift for Christmas that he will treasure.

On Christmas eve, he arrives home and she is still hurrying about preparing a special dinner, a scarf covering her head and an apron protecting her dress.

The physical gifts were now useless to each of them. But the love with which they were acquired will see them through, whatever lies ahead.

May your Christmas be merry and full of love.

[Based on the short story by O. Henry called “The Gift of the Magi.”]

Photo credit: Dusty Cline via Dollar Photo Club

[Show #466]

I Bought Gifts

Sometimes your gifts to children just don’t work. You enjoyed shopping for them, but it was clear they were not well received. Are you disappointed when they aren’t gracious in their response? Or do you just chalk it up to being out of touch with what young people want these days. See if you recognize yourself in these reflections.

Show #528