Confidence and Talents
I stumbled upon a blog and it had an entry Confidence. Click on the word. This really got me thinking:
"Confidence is not reliant upon attractiveness or willpower or cool factor or finding a lover or even trying at all. It's not (as I have always believed it to be) a measure of how sure you are that the people in your life like you. It's just knowing what you love. And doing it. Surrounding yourself with it. Bathing in an ocean of it. And appreciating the little happinesses that pepper your days, week after week, year after year."
Never really thought of confidence that way, but I guess it does make a lot of sense. It's the things that make us happy, that gives us the confidence and ability to just enjoy life. It's a matter of appreciating the things that make us happy, appreciating even the talents that God's given to us. This just kind of coincides with what I heard at today's church service at Riverview. It was about the importance of recognising our talents that God had given us, and to share that talent with a purpose to serve God's people. I know it can be tough to get our heads around the idea of talents and gifts. The bible speaks a lot about the spiritual gifts and sometimes we just find it hard to find that we don't have these gifts. However, it isn't just spiritual gifts that God gives us, he provides can give us gifts in various forms, for example, the gift of words to comfort someone, the gift of music, the gift of cooking, etc...
We're all given different talents/gifts in life and we're given these gifts for various purposes. If we don't know what are the talents that we have, don't go looking for it, cause we simply don't find out talents, we realise it. Our talents are so natural that we don't realise it till either someone mentions it, or it just takes time to realise that hey..a certain thing that we do, somehow seems to have a very positive outcome to it. For example, in my case, I think my gift's to work with animals. I started to realise that this could possibily be something that God would want me to do as I found myself enjoying the things I did at RSPCA, time always seemed to pass too quickly, and before I knew it, it was time to go home! I know it's tough to actually understand like how on earth is that even a valid reason to think that it could possibly be a gift that God's given me? Well...like I mentioned, it takes time to really know what our talents are, some would know their talents really quickly, others...well..take a longer time. It's just a matter of trying to figure out what makes you really happy! And I believe that that's the thing that God has given each of us, a talent that we'll enjoy and with that talent, use it to bring joy to others. For example, if cooking is your gift, use it to fill the hearts of hungry men. If speaking is your talent, use it to speak comforting words and use it to preach God's word.
Our talents make us who we are. There's no point striving for something which might not be be of our reach. Every asian parent "enjoys" placing pressure on their kids. Kids have to grow up to be doctors, lawyers, and whatever higher profession that would seem to be so "awesome" and "perfect". But really...maybe one can have a talent for everything, BUT talent isn't much without passion. So I think true talent is passion, and with passion nothing is impossible, and with God, if that's the right talent, then yes everything good's gonna come out of it. We need to accept who we are, the abilities that God has given us, appreciate and value these gifts, and we'll be on the right path to success.
Romans 12:4
The Message (MSG)
4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.
"Confidence is not reliant upon attractiveness or willpower or cool factor or finding a lover or even trying at all. It's not (as I have always believed it to be) a measure of how sure you are that the people in your life like you. It's just knowing what you love. And doing it. Surrounding yourself with it. Bathing in an ocean of it. And appreciating the little happinesses that pepper your days, week after week, year after year."
Never really thought of confidence that way, but I guess it does make a lot of sense. It's the things that make us happy, that gives us the confidence and ability to just enjoy life. It's a matter of appreciating the things that make us happy, appreciating even the talents that God's given to us. This just kind of coincides with what I heard at today's church service at Riverview. It was about the importance of recognising our talents that God had given us, and to share that talent with a purpose to serve God's people. I know it can be tough to get our heads around the idea of talents and gifts. The bible speaks a lot about the spiritual gifts and sometimes we just find it hard to find that we don't have these gifts. However, it isn't just spiritual gifts that God gives us, he provides can give us gifts in various forms, for example, the gift of words to comfort someone, the gift of music, the gift of cooking, etc...
We're all given different talents/gifts in life and we're given these gifts for various purposes. If we don't know what are the talents that we have, don't go looking for it, cause we simply don't find out talents, we realise it. Our talents are so natural that we don't realise it till either someone mentions it, or it just takes time to realise that hey..a certain thing that we do, somehow seems to have a very positive outcome to it. For example, in my case, I think my gift's to work with animals. I started to realise that this could possibily be something that God would want me to do as I found myself enjoying the things I did at RSPCA, time always seemed to pass too quickly, and before I knew it, it was time to go home! I know it's tough to actually understand like how on earth is that even a valid reason to think that it could possibly be a gift that God's given me? Well...like I mentioned, it takes time to really know what our talents are, some would know their talents really quickly, others...well..take a longer time. It's just a matter of trying to figure out what makes you really happy! And I believe that that's the thing that God has given each of us, a talent that we'll enjoy and with that talent, use it to bring joy to others. For example, if cooking is your gift, use it to fill the hearts of hungry men. If speaking is your talent, use it to speak comforting words and use it to preach God's word.
Our talents make us who we are. There's no point striving for something which might not be be of our reach. Every asian parent "enjoys" placing pressure on their kids. Kids have to grow up to be doctors, lawyers, and whatever higher profession that would seem to be so "awesome" and "perfect". But really...maybe one can have a talent for everything, BUT talent isn't much without passion. So I think true talent is passion, and with passion nothing is impossible, and with God, if that's the right talent, then yes everything good's gonna come out of it. We need to accept who we are, the abilities that God has given us, appreciate and value these gifts, and we'll be on the right path to success.
Romans 12:4
The Message (MSG)
4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.