Keys of Sincere Rejoicingعينة

## Skill When we talk about skill, our capacity to perform something, we can understand it to be a result of our effort, our discipline, and our competence. Yet all our skills have been given to us by God. Each of us has been endowed with one or more talents or skills. We can surrender them to Him, so He will shine through as we use them—so that when someone else gives us credit for what we have done, we will give the credit and honor to God. We all have gifts: a surgeon with her skillful hands, a teacher who can teach, and a cook with his talent for cooking. Fathers, mothers, singles, married, young or mature: no matter our age, role, or economic status, we can surrender what we have in our backpack of skills to the Lord to be perfected, increased, and used for His glory. Every skill must be put to work, or it loses its value. Thus, in one of Jesus’ parables, a man distributed coins to his servants according to their skill. Later, when he asked them to give an account of their investment, he rewarded those who had multiplied the coins, but the servant who had buried the coins found that even what he had was taken away from him. If a watch of priceless gold cannot tell time, what is the use of having it? So it is with our talents and skills. When we put them to work, dedicating them to the Lord, He adds to our creativity to use them. We will see how the Lord makes them increase if we persevere and pay attention to developing our gifts and skills. It is enough for us just to know that the Lord deals with our character by having us persevere and invest time to perfect our talents so He will be praised for what He has done in us. Lord, I thank You for each of the resources and skills You have given me. I surrender each of them to Your service so that You may use them and people may know You through them. I ask You to help me to persevere in mastering and developing my gifts and abilities.