Writing has always been my method of catharsis. Whenever I am confused, sad, enthusiastic, or introspective, I write. Sometimes I write poems or prayers but most often I write out my thoughts or inspirations that have stopped me in my tracks and motivated me to write. Now, I’m kind of old school in that I write with a pen in a journal but due to the promptings of the husband, friends, and my spiritual mentor, I have succumbed to the pressure…err…I mean…encouragement and decided to join the wonderful world of blogging.
God has given me certain gifts…nothing I can take credit for
mind you…all from Him and for Him. Among
those gifts are the heart of a worshipper, the ability to encourage and
motivate, and the ability to write well.
For the better part of my life, I didn’t really acknowledge these gifts
as anything special or extraordinary. In
fact, I tended more towards minimizing them and sometimes even downright
ignoring them for fear of rejection and failure. I also felt as though if I acknowledged or even
celebrated those gifts, it would seem as though I was being prideful or
arrogant. In order to avoid any of those
pitfalls, I chose to shove my gifts to the farthest reaches of my heart and
mind and only use them to the extent in which I felt comfortable. It is only recently that I have begun to
realize what a disservice that was to not only me but to whomever God has
called me to reach. Worse than that, I
was taking the gifts He gave me for granted and belittling or counting them of
little worth. Horrible, I know. I remember vividly the vision He gave me
regarding that very thing. As I was complaining
to Him about how I was unhappy with my lack of great talent I heard the Lord
say to me (as what seemed like an epiphany in my mind) that I was being
ungrateful. He said, “Imagine you gave
both your children Christmas gifts that you had lovingly and thoughtfully
picked out just for them and one of them said to you, ‘Oh, I don’t really like
this gift. It isn’t as good as theirs. I
wish I had something better,’ how would that make you feel?” Well, needless to
say, it would make me feel awful and unappreciated. This is what I was doing to my loving Father
who in His great wisdom and love had lavished on me certain gifts that were
just for me. His Word says that we are
“fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) and when He created me, He
carefully chose the gifts that were to be mine and to be used to glorify
Him. How small-minded and ungrateful of
me to reject those gifts as not good enough!
I repented immediately and thus began this new journey in my life…a
journey towards discovering and fulfilling my purpose.
My hopes for this blog is that someone will be inspired,
encouraged, and even motivated to discover and fulfill their God-given
purpose. Each of us has been gifted with
something from our Creator, it is our job to identify it, acknowledge it, be
grateful for it, and most importantly, use it for His glory and for the good of
His kingdom on Earth. God is a good God
and His heart towards us is good. Every
morning when I wake up, I endeavor to walk out my purpose and to encourage
anyone the Lord sends my way to do the same.
There is joy in this journey my friends, but there is also a lot of
pruning that needs to be done to rid us of the things that hold us back from
truly discovering all the wonderful things God has for us in this life. Let’s journey together, motivate one another,
and live to love! Until my next post…may
all who read this be blessed beyond measure and may a passion for purpose be
ignited in each heart!
Much love and many blessings – Nancy
