We Need Your Gifts!

This past weekend I attended a women’s conference, during the conference we did a vision board session. As I was working on my vision board I saw a few things that reminded me of my smile. Often, I receive compliments on my smile, “you have a beautiful smile” or “your smile made my day.” With these compliments, I recognize that my smile can be a gift to others, it brings encouragement, happiness, hope, and often brightens people’s day.

What’s so funny, yet interesting about my smile is, growing up, I rarely did it. Let me go back, I smiled, but not as much as I do now. My standard face is a pretty straight :/, so many times people would wonder if I was mean or if I was okay, even now people ask “are you okay” when I’m not smiling, hahaha. But I had to learn over time, that I had to be conscious of my facial expressions.

As I sat in the vision board session, I saw a picture of a sunflower and the word shine. I picked these two to add to my vision board as they both reminded me of my smile. I believe my smile is a gift God has given me to bring sun-shine with my daily connections.

As I pondered on my smile and how I didn’t always use it, I wondered how many people missed out on a possible blessing because I was not smiling. You too have a gift, whether it is a smile, an encouraging word, a book, a business, how many people are lacking because of the gift that you have yet to share? What gifts are you holding back that people need?

Let this blog post be a reminder that your gifts are not for you, but for you to be a blessing to others. Do not hold back on your gift!