Using Your Gifts and Talents to Influence Others

You never know who you could be influencing!

What skills do you have? Please don’t chuckle and respond, “None.” That is not true because every one of us has been given gifts and abilities that are needed in this world.

There is a skill you have that is important. There is information you know that can impact another person’s journey.

As a young married woman, Mrs. Liz offered to teach some of us how to quilt. I jumped at the opportunity. Once a week for several months, we met and she taught a few women. But what developed in that space was a relationship. She had made space through her creativity to develop the relationship, and I ended up asking questions about way more than quilting.

• I know of gardeners who help others learn to garden.

• Cooking is a NEEDED space. So many young people don’t know how to cook.

• Songwriters are inviting young men in to help them practice the process of songwriting.

• A friend who worked for a big company coached me on using and navigating social media.

• Taylor meets with a young man learning the building industry.

• An elderly woman who barely left her house wrote letters to men incarcerated to encourage them in the Lord.

• Women who knit/crochet are teaching younger ones these skills.

• College men are meeting with younger men to encourage them in the Lord and navigate life in college. (Apparently, this is becoming a movement lately!)

• A dear lady taught me how to wrap gifts when I was a little girl. I still remember those lessons.

This list is endless. As many skills and abilities as there are, there are opportunities just waiting to happen.

If you truly do not know what yours are, ask God. Stop and pray, asking Him to show you what you can offer to help further the kingdom. Then begin to watch and see what He unfolds before you.

And if you want to learn some skill but haven’t yet, search out a person who has that skill and ask if they would help you. Just ask if they will let you ask a few questions.

Titus 2 4-6 encourages the older men and women to teach the younger ones. We need this to start happening again. God knew what he was talking about when He gave us these instructions. We need each other. We need to link arms. We can impact this world with our gifts and abilities.

Consider what you bring to the table.

Nothing is too small.

There are no minor gifts.

Begin to pray for someone to share them with.

Watch and see who comes!