Unused Gifts
UNUSED GIFTS
Read Romans 12:6-12.
Ryan played the first page of his music. Then he thought about how the guys had snickered when his mother had called him to come inside to practice. He wondered if any kids would make fun of him when he played in church Sunday. He sat at the piano, staring at his music.
“Why did you quit?” Mom called.
“I don’t want to play in church,” Ryan said. “Piano is for girls.”
“That isn’t true,” protested Mom, placing her hands on Ryan’s shoulders. “God gave you an exceptional talent, and He wants you to use it.”
“I can’t,” Ryan answered. Mom didn’t insist that Ryan keep on practicing his special number, but she asked him to think and pray about it.
That night Ryan worked on a gift for his sister, Abby. It was a wristband like those many kids at school were wearing.
“Thank you,” Abby said when she opened it on her birthday.
A few days later Ryan complained, “Abby, you never wear the wristband I made for you.”
“Well, it’s not really like the ones the other girls are wearing,” Abby explained.
After Abby left the room, Mom looked at Ryan. “It hurts when you take special care with a gift for someone but that person doesn’t use it,” she observed. Ryan nodded sadly.
As Ryan considered his mother’s words, someone knocked on the door. Ryan answered it. “Want to play ball?” invited Adam, who lived next door.
Ryan hesitated. “I’m going to practice piano first,” he said.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Do you have a gift you aren’t using? Maybe you’re embarrassed to use it. Maybe you don’t want to make the effort to develop it. God gave you gifts. He is pleased when you use them.
TO MEMORIZE:
Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.
1 Peter 2:10
USE YOUR GIFTS.
From the book
