Do you have a faith-based author that really resonates with you, Dear Reader? As a newer Christian, C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” really spoke to me. One bookshelf has most of Jan Karon’s Mitford series books. For several summers I reread the first nine volumes faithfully. (This year I barely made it through one.)

My bookshelves are living quarters to books by Holley Gerth, Joel Osteen, John Maxwell, Mark Batterson, Rick Warren, and my daughter, Mary Carver. But over the years, Joyce Meyer has been my author of choice for getting down to the nitty-gritty of life, and still managing to keep it positive.

This book of Joyce’s speaks so powerfully to me that this summer I’m reading it for the third time around.

Anytime I read about “gifts,” it grabs my attention. For most of my life I felt like I didn’t fit in, I was a bit off kilter. (Of course, it didn’t help that I was nearly six feet tall from 8th grade on, and living in the Midwest with a South Georgia accent.) I struggled to find what I was good at, trying to excel and enjoy the same things my friends did. That went on for decades. I recently told a friend of fifty years that for the first two decades Tom and I were married I tried to do everything like she did because Tom thought she was so great. (Does that ring a few bells out there, Dear Readers?)

However, Christ has given each of us special abilities—whatever he wants us to have out of his rich storehouse of gifts.

The psalmist tells about this, for he says that when Christ returned triumphantly to heaven after his resurrection and victory over Satan, he gave generous gifts to men.

Ephesians 4:7-8 TLB

One of the things the Lord has been stressing to me this year has been to s…l…o…w down when I’m in His Presence, His Word, and the words He’s given to those who faithfully serve Him, like the book on hearing His voice. When I reached the chapter called, “Using Your God-Given Gifts,” I not only slowed down, but I started digging.

Do any of these sound familiar: Kolbe Index, Myers-Briggs, Fivefold Spiritual Gifts, or Enneagram? (Or in the World of our granddaughters, Hogwarts House Sorting.) Just by typing those names and collecting links, I realized each one “assesses” differently on different aspects. However, all of them understand that humans are unique, with various strengths and challenges.

After scribbling results from several assessments in Joyce’s book, it became clear the Lord had been telling me the same thing in different ways over the years, I just wasn’t listening, or was at least a few steps off the path He had planned for me all along. Reading Joyce’s book made me realize I was in some pretty good company. Scripture is full of folks who started off in one direction, then took a sharp right, like Ruth, Moses, Rahab, Jonah, Matthew, Mary Magdalene, Peter . . . and David.

 But when David’s oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking like that, he was angry. “What are you doing around here, anyway?” he demanded. “What about the sheep you’re supposed to be taking care of? I know what a cocky brat you are; you just want to see the battle!”

“What have I done now?” David replied. “I was only asking a question!”

 “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “How can a kid like you fight with a man like him? You are only a boy, and he has been in the army since he was a boy!”

But David persisted. “When I am taking care of my father’s sheep,” he said, “and a lion or a bear comes and grabs a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and take the lamb from its mouth. If it turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this heathen Philistine too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who saved me from the claws and teeth of the lion and the bear will save me from this Philistine!”

David shouted in reply, “You come to me with a sword and a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of the armies of heaven and of Israel—the very God whom you have defied. 

As Goliath approached, David ran out to meet him and, reaching into his shepherd’s bag, took out a stone, hurled it from his sling, and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and the man fell on his face to the ground. So David conquered the Philistine giant with a sling and a stone.

1 Samuel 17: 28-29, 33-36, 45, 48-50a TLB

Dear Reader, I know we’re not all cut out to be Davids, but we’re all cut out for a specific purpose and plan. If you were making a wedding dress or cake for someone you loved, wouldn’t you use only the very best materials for your labor of love? God does the same thing with us, we just don’t always see it when immersed in the realities of life. If we are created to bring the Most High God glory, then surely He can use whatever surrounds us to make something beautiful.

Maybe it’s time to take a second look, slow down, and perhaps change perspectives. Maybe there are God-given gifts still waiting to be opened.

A couple of little jewels of affirmation, just for you!