The Importance of Ministry

Recently I have been reading over some of my old blog posts from my xanga. As I've been extremely busy with school and haven't been able to write as much, I thought I would do some reposting. Enjoy. :)

12 November 2008

I wanted to share something with you that I learned recently about the importance of ministries.

Lately my life has been going well...but I wasn't feeling satisfied. I felt like Community College was taking up too much of my time, and I felt like I wasn't going anywhere hobby-wise. For almost my entire life I have taken lessons of some kind from piano, to ballet, to art, to horseback riding. However, this past year I haven't really done anything and it was leaving me feeling like a useless, jack-of-all-trades and master at nothing. I felt like I had frittered away my adolescence, dabbling in a bunch of things instead of honing my skills in one area. I wanted to be exceptionally good at something! I wanted to be a professional pianist, or a professional ballerina, or paint a masterpiece, or compete in a three day event. My pointless piddling in various areas was leaving me unsatisfied.

Finally I went to my mom, told her how I felt and asked her what to do. She pointed out some important things. Why did I want to be exceptionally good at something? For the praise of man? To feel good about myself? I felt it was mostly the latter though if I was completely honest I'd have to say both. The praise of man is a pleasurable thing. But the praise of God is better. After stepping back and analyzing what my mom had said, I realized that I wanted to use my talents for purely selfish things. Instead of giving to others out of my talents, I wanted to gain more knowledge in a certain area to feel accomplished. Pondering this, I went through a mental checklist of which talents I was using in ministry.

Out of my three current hobbies: piano, art, and horseback riding, I was using two consistently in ministry. Every month or so I play hymns for the local nursing home, and I teach riding lessons, passing on what I know to lots of little girls. As for art, I can make that a ministry by painting cards and creating homemade gifts for people. But hobbies aren't the only things useful for ministry. At this stage of my life, two more practical areas I am focusing on are cooking and child care. I have a lot of opportunities to cook when mom is gone and I am slowly developing that skill, as for child care, I am still praying about that.

It may be that God wants me to pay more attention to my little sister, or perhaps He would be willing for me to help with someone's children outside our home. Whatever it is, I know that God has a perfect plan for all of my talents, and when I lay down my own selfish ambitions and use them for Him, I am always satisfied...