Using Your Special Gifts with Your Unique Quirks

"Mom, look what I can do!" my 7 yr old exclaimed as she sniffed hard, pulling both of her nostrils closed.
"Wow, impressive!" I responded enthusiastically, as any mom would.
"It's my special gift from God," she told me.

We all have special gifts. God gives each of us gifts according to his purpose. But we also have quirks. We can mistake our quirks for gifts.  (Watch any episode of America's Got Talent, and you will see examples of this.)  But sometimes we can combine our quirks with our gifts, to create our own unique ministry.

I believe that my writing is a gift. I also have the uncanny ability to remember song lyrics. This leads me to break out into song in almost every conversation, because a single word or phrase can bring an entire song to mind.

I used this "quirk" with my gift of writing, to create Musical Mondays here on the blog. I combined my quirk with my gift and incorporated it into my blog. While it may have seemed clever at the time (okay, I still think it was clever!) it never grew into what I expected, which was a devotional book based on the premise.  But it did create my own unique devotional style.

You are unique too!  God made you special with gifts to use for his glory, and quirks that make you you! It's our job to figure out our gifts and use them for God's design. And if you're a little quirky too, just go for it. It's what puts that unique spin on your gift.

Finally, don't compare your gifts with others!  In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul spells out how we are all uniquely gifted, like different parts of a body. Foot, ear, eye...all are needed for a unique purpose! None are better than the others. So then are our unique gifts.

Use your gifts, embrace your quirks, and don't compare! After all, we can't all sniff hard enough to close our nose! But we can all use our gifts (and quirks!) to glorify God.

What are you gifts? What are you quirks? How can you combine them to create your own unique ministry?