The subject at teacher's meeting this evening was 1 Corrinthians 12th chapter.  This chapter discusses gifts that people in the church are given--by God.  The point of the lesson is that all gifts are for the common good.  Gifts are compared to the parts of the body: toes, eyes, elbows, etc. that make up the whole.  We need each part to make the body of the church.  All parts are important.

Someone in the group said that you ought to know what your gift is.  But many people don't know how they are gifted.  They seem to think it has to be music, or teaching, preaching, or something public along those lines.  Truth is, the most important gifts are those like:  Being an encourager.  Or a listener.  Or an organizer.  Or a cook, or visitor to the homebound.  The gifts of service are the most valuable of all--or so it seems to me.  Where the rubber meets the road.  Where people are helped by a Christian servant in the most basic ways.

I made the point that I really don't like the concept of a person having "a" gift.  Because you might get stuck with the idea that you have "One" gift.  I don't think that is necessarily true.  Over my lifetime, I have been able to do a number of things that were beneficial for the "Common Good" that I did for awhile, and then didn't continue to do as I grew older.

For instance, I could sew.  So I helped others learn how to do that.  It was certainly a benefit to those who didn't know how.  Then I went as a helper to Church camp for years.  Dirty work.  Tiring.  Emotionally draining.  Then I didn't do either of those things any more.  I did a different thing, I advised young people how to make a four year college plan of study.  I taught Bible at church.  And in my home.  And when the pianist at Church quit, they asked if I would do that.  I said OK.  But here I am writing every day.  Is my gift writing?  Or sewing?  Or teaching?  Or being a youth camp helper?  Or....or...or, is it just being who I am by the grace of God?  

I think of gifts as being things we can do, and are willing to do, when those things need to be done.  Some of them we are really good at.  But there are some things we aren't good at at all.  For me, it's organizing people to so something.  Actually organizing people period.  I like to be told what to do--to help--by someone who knows what they are doing.  I much prefer to follow a leader rather than lead.  And working with small children makes me nuts.  Some people have a "gift" for that!!  Good.