Stir Up the Gifts!

Special thanks to fellow Soul Purpose LE Audrey Wiggins for reminding me to use my gifts. It's been months since I've last written on the blog and I have no excuse for it. I procrastinated and didn't prioritize writing on it. Mea culpa. I have a gift of encouragement and have chosen this blog as a means of sharing that gift. I'm just letting it die if I don't use it so I'm going to use it more. I'm stirring it up!

Speaking of gifts, I look at gifts as being a blessing that's given to us free of charge! No exchange of money, just receipt of something nice. We're used to receiving gifts for Christmas or our birthdays or anniversaries but fail to appreciate the gifts that we're given every day. The gift of life, particularly if your life is joyous. We don't have to have it. My dear friend and sister Lucille Tomlinson will be celebrating the homegoing of her mother, Vera Pitts Morris, this weekend. Lucille was gifted with her mother's life for many years. I believe that I'm accurate in saying that Mrs. Morris looked at life as a gift, as well, so she took advantage of it as often as possible. She traveled and saw the world, spent time with friends and family, influenced many people as a teacher, etc. She will be missed but I thank God that we were all blessed with having her in our lives. What a fantastic gift.

Aside from just living, many of us are living fairly normally. By this, I mean that we're able to see, hear, smell, walk, talk, etc. We may need assistance with these things on occasion but we are able to do them. Oprah Winfrey recently featured the woman who was severely injured by a vicious attack from a 200 pound chimpanzee who belonged to her boss. The wild animal mangled her hands. She no longer has one hand and the fingers were removed from her other hand (they reattached her thumb for assistance). The chimp then tore off her nose, bit off part of her jaw and gouged out her eyes. So, this once very attractive, athletic woman is now blind and maimed. Some who saw her said that they would rather die than go through what she's enduring. Yet, she views life as a gift so she's moving on. She said that she can't worry about what happened because it's in the past now. There's more life ahead and she's moving on with it.

Let's not take the gift of life for granted! Live it to the best of your ability and help others to do the same. I believe that's what God wants us to do.