Recently I was reminded of a concept which provoked my thoughts quite a bit. As I was reading through a book called "Strengths Finder" Written by Tom Rath, I came across a quote that hit me hard.
“When we’re able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists................ Across the board, having the
opportunity to develop our strengths is more important to our success than our
role, our title, or even our pay. In this increasingly talent-driven society,
we need to know and develop our strengths to figure out where we fit in.”
(Rath, Pg. 8-9)
Why is this such an important concept to think about? Well, let me put it this way. We live in a society were at work, at school, and even at home we focus more on people's weaknesses rather than helping them develop their strengths. For example, at home, those of us who are parents, work hard with our kids to help them achieve things that they are terrible at, yet we never put any effort into their natural talents or abilities. At work, your boss might call you in his or her office to remind you of how terrible you did in something, yet he or she rarely focuses on the areas of which your are really good at and assign you tasks based on your strengths.
When it comes to our personal selves, we spend an enormous amount of time to be things that we are not meant to be, whereas our focus should be on what God made us to be and what gifts He blessed us with. for instance, If you are not good with history, and studying history gives you a headache, you can put so much effort and time into developing yourself to be better with at remembering all the historical events and dates, yet it is not likely that you will become a historian. On the contrary, if your gift is in teaching and you actually focus on that gift and spend your time and effort into developing yourself, you will soon realize that you are not only growing, but you are also enjoying what you are doing.
God's words says in Romans 12:3-8, "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully."
Rath, Tom. StrengthsFinder 2.0:
A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your
Strengths. 1st ed. New
York: Gallup Press, 2007. Kindle Edition & Web
