Seeds of gifts and abilities have been planted inside each one of us but for those seeds to grow to their full potential they must be “watered” and given attention to make sure they become fruitful.
Jesus cautions us in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 to ensure we invest our talents wisely. Meaning we’re not sitting around waiting and doing little or nothing with all we have been given. Instead we choose to build into those things that are important and valuable to us. Plus in doing so we often become an answer to someone elses prayers and problem.
However in the pursuit of cultivating what we have had sown into our lives we must watch our runaway calendars because otherwise they will hold us hostage to tangible things like meetings, appointments and projects, without giving proper priority to the intangibles: who we are becoming, our relationships with family and friends, our connectedness to God and our purpose. Without conscious intervention our tendency to over-schedule means that the priorities we care about most and the gifts we are to cultivate will take a backseat to the urgent noise of life every time.
One way we can start is by redrafting our schedule and filling it up the way God would fill it if He were in charge of our time and calendar. A great way is to begin to seek Him, ask for His help and guidance when feeling overwhelmed and time poor and start plugging into the available time slots of our calendar those things that determine who we want to become. Then we will, with Gods help gradually become the kind of people we want to be.
A good question to regularly ask is, “How would God have me spend my day?” And then seek His wisdom on how to manage our time and commitments most effectively to do that.
Secondly, don’t mistake the urgent for the important. Everyday concerns and presuures often sound important but they’re usually not. They can in fact wait so that you can focus on what is actually important first. Learn to prioritise.
Don’t compare yourself with others. When we get into the comparison trap we can minimise and disregard the gifts and talents God has given us and end up doing nothing to grow our potential. We can start to consider it pointless to even begin because we’re too busy looking at others rather than at Jesus and what and who He says we are.
Today consider what gifts and talents have been planted within you. Then make a decision to ensure you don’t disregard, minimise or get too busy and distracted in your everyday schedule that you leave no time or space to cultivate those things that you value and which God has placed within you to bless both your life and the lives of all those around you.
“Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power.” (2 Peter 1:3 The Passion translation)
Prayer: Jesus would you please give me wisdom in my schedule so that I can best use my day doing those things that are important and that help me to become all that I was created to be. Please help me to stay out of the comparison trap. In Jesus name Amen.
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