Hello hello, I hope you had a good thanksgiving.
There is so much to be thankful for. One of the things I am most thankful for is you. You are a remarkable person, God’s masterpiece, his work in progress.
We are exploring how to begin to understand God’s specific purpose for your life and today we are going to look at a huge part of that: YOU!
Who are you? What are you good at?
Many of us are in the middle of a learning season. You may be taking classes or have taken classes you were great at and some you were less so. You already know what course you like and excel at and what courses you hate and are terrible at. Which one do you devote your time to?
We typically think the best course of action is to devote the most time to the thing we are worse at. And in school that is a necessity but in life you have a limited amount of time and energy.
When you look at yourself you probably know the things you are good at and the things you struggle to do. You’ve got these two options the good thing and the struggling thing: Where do you devote your time?
Years ago I learned two myths from the author Markus Buckingham.
Myth 1: As you grow you change
Myth 2: the area you are going to grow the most the area where you are the weakest.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could take the thing we are good at and use our time to become great rather than take the thing we are weaker in and use our time to become less of a weakness?
I’m not trying to say don’t try to be better. I’m trying to say what we talked about last time in Ephesians 2:10: You were created with purpose in mind.
Today, we are going to look more closely at why you should lean into your purpose, into your strengths.
Romans 12:1-2 says:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
We are called to discern God’s will.
But even more so the passage goes on:
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.
We are to think with sober judgment and we are called to use them. You don’t have to be good at everything and in fact you shouldn’t try. Think wisely about where you are strong and lean into it. Where you are stronger, feel capable, have the sense of a gifting from God is a key indicator of who God made you to be. He wants you to use the gifts he has given you.
So How do I figure out my strengths?
- Identify your spiritual gifts
- SIGN – Where you have Success, Where your Instincts kick in, Where you see clear Growth, Where you see Needs
- Go and do something: try: and see what happens?
- Ask someone you trust.
- Get a friend and ask them to give you solid feedback.
- We saw great things in your this summer as you led. Reach out to your camp leaders and we may have some insight to what we see in you.
One last way you can explore this is by knowing your heart. Here’s an exercise you can do to help you find your strengths.
- Identify what you love by quickly brainstorm all of the things you love
- When done order them into your top twenty.
- Look for patterns. Are you people-focused? Arty? Big into film? or really care about your family? These things may help you understand where your strengths lie.
Be you and play to your strengths. Work on figuring what those strengths are and what they may be. These are major indicators of the person God has made you to be and a huge step in figuring out what God has in store for you.
I’d love to hear about your passions and the things you love. If you want to share please do. Reach out to your directors. As always I’m at pat@miniyowe.com.
You are a strong and capable person. You just have to figure out what those things are. Play to your strengths and try them out. You already started to that at camp this summer. We are glad you did.
Take care friends.
This post is part of our Leap of Faith Audio Check-ins. We want to encourage you to leap into your faith and continue to grow at home, at school, and in your church. These audio check-ins are meant to encourage you as live out your faith every day.
Want to keep growing?
There are more episode of Leap of Faith and other resources for you to grow in your leadership and faith here.