Everybody is good at something. I am tremendously blessed to be at more than one thing. I happen to be good at doing Mickey Mouse impersonations, something that I plan to perfect hope will pay off in the long run. Still, with all of my talents I will admit that I have missed the boat. I have taken many for them for granted and not used them or live up to my fullest potential. I have looked at my talents and used them to seek admiration, affirmation and ultimately validation from others. I have used my talents to show off, feed my ego, and impress those who I looked up to or wanted to like me. The real danger here is first I find my self seeking validation where it cannot come from, but also I begin to almost derive my own identity from these talents.

I played hockey growing up and I loved it. It was the one thing that I stuck with the longest and out of everything I have done it brought me the most joy. I played so much that it became my life. From season to season there was always another team to make and game to play. However, when it all ended I had nothing but my memories to show for it. Honestly, I felt lost. I felt that my identity was gone and I was useless. Hockey was what I was good at, and now I am not good at anything anymore. More importantly I had no way to prove myself to others. No way to seek that affirmation or validation.

Maybe you can relate, or have had similar experiences. What I had to learn the hard way is that my identity and my validation do not come from what I am good at; they do not even come from what I do. Knowing that I am talented should cultivate gratitude within me. I am only talented because the Lord has given me those talents. If it weren't for Him, I would not have those talents. Also the validation I seek to gain so desperately with those talents also must come from Him. If I have no talents apart from God, I can't have any validation from God.

What I have learned is this. My identity comes from God my maker. From Him derives my talents and my purpose. What I do or don't, or what I am good at or am not good at does not make up who I am. Who I am to God is who my identity is. Therefore I receive my validation by realizing that identity and taking all that I am and all that I am blessed with, and I give them back to Him, the source of my identity. So by living out my talents and ultimately my identity for Him from which they come, then I receive my validation.

By taking what He has given me and using it to the full, then giving it back to Him; by glorifying Him in everything I do-that's where my validation comes from.

+AMDG+