Gifts from My Father

Guest post by Gail Austin

It’s been a strange year–packed full of epiphanies lately.

Occasionally we’re forced to clean out our closets. Our life closets, our spiritual closets and our emotional closets. We need to check to see what needs to be fixed, tossed, or maybe even re-gifted.

My latest epiphany was how God had given me several birthday presents that I stuffed in one of my closets and forgot about. We are all given gifts by God at birth; they are opened over the course of our life time.

For example, a few of the “birth”-day gifts my heavenly Father gave me.

  1. Stuttering.  Yes this is a gift.  If I hadn’t stuttered, I may never have realized how to show compassion for others who feel different. Thank you God for this gift. Not only did you help me overcome it but now I can speak clearly and in front of large audiences. Also, if I hadn’t stuttered. I wouldn’t have met my friend Jamie Carroll who was disabled and ostracized by the other children when we were eight years.

BIRTHDAY GIFT EPIPHANY:  I need to use my gift of helping those who feel less than and help them dance or whatever God’s plan is.

  1. ADHD. Yes this is a gift too. If I hadn’t had ADHD, I would not have learned to juggle the many obstacles thrown at me in my lifetime.  ADHD people are brilliant you know! Like my Mom being a single parent with a 9th grade education who supported us on a waitress salary. Every time we had to move or got evicted or had to live in uncomfortable places my wonderful ADHD brain made it a fun adventure, preparing me for a future life of being a traveler for God. God knows that I am built to go when he says go. So thank you God for the ADHD; in the end it created fearlessness in me that mere mortals or non-ADHD people cannot relate to. It also causes me to always have a party in my head. That makes it fun too!

BIRTHDAY GIFT EPIPHANY: Have I asked God lately where do I go from here so that I might use my fearlessness? Should I go walk among the poor and homeless? Maybe. God you tell me.  

  1. Compassion:  Yes, thank you God for this gift.  Because he gave me compassion God was able to use me time and time again. I can see when a person is hungry and they are too proud to tell; I can put food on their doorstep. Don’t need to be acknowledged. God gave me the ability to see when a person is spiritually wounded and emotionally broken and from my own life experiences the Holy Spirit can guide me into helping. With compassion I don’t see torn clothes or tattoos (I have two very awesome ones) or failures, I see beauty. When no one will go to the nursing home and love on the elderly I go there and put my hand on their soft faces and tell them they are loved and wanted.

BIRTHDAY GIFT EPIPHANY:   Have I put away that gift so far in the closet that I forgot about it? Maybe it’s time to call the local shelter and see how I can volunteer.

  1. PRAYER WARRIOR:  Ah, God this is the gift I feel the most sorry for not using as often as I should. I leave it unopened, yet I wail and cry out about the why’s of my life when you gave me this unbelievable strength and courage and fearlessness of being able to pray anywhere any time any place. I have not. I have not opened my eyes to see the people that cross my path that you need me to pray. I am so busy trying to fix my own self when all along you gave me this gift.   BIRTHDAY GIFT EPIPHANY:  I will resume my position of prayer warrior and not use the excuses of not having found a church yet in my new town, or that people will find me strange when I say I want to pray for them. I am here to reclaim my ‘birth” day gifts God.

If you examine the closets of your life, have you forgotten any gifts our Father granted you? Will you leave me a comment; I will commit to pray for you. That’s on my list J.

 

 

2 thoughts on “Gifts from My Father

  1. You have me thinking about some of my gifts now & praying I won’t miss the opportunities God gives me to bless someone else. I hate it when I miss those opportunities because of being self centered at times & also miss the blessing because of course Jesus said it is better to give than to receive. And it truly is wonderful how God turns some of those negatives from our lives into tools to help others. Love & prayers, Cynthia

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *