Holding Onto the Gift He Gave You

If you have siblings or good friends who have the same hobby as you, then you know the feeling. The feeling that they do that hobby so much better than you do. For me, it’s writing. My older sister writes a tiny bit when she’s not painting or cuddling and smooching on our two goldendoodles. My best friend writes as well, and so does everyone in my Writing Club. Often, they will show me something they’ve written recently, and after I read it, I have either one of two feelings. I either feel inspired and thrilled that I know someone who can write like that. The other is the feeling that they can write so much better than I can, and if so, why try anymore? I have the latter feeling more than the former, sadly. This is a sin that I often struggle with. The sin of being jealous, jealous that my friends can write so much better than I can, and being discontent with the gift God has given me.

God has given me a gift in writing, and he has given others gifts in writing as well. Maybe I found it later than they did, maybe they fell in love with writing stories immediately and haven’t stopped since. Well, for me, I only discovered my love for writing two years ago when I first watched the movie and read the book "Little Women", by Louisa May Alcott. I was struck by Jo’s drive and passion for writing. I wanted to be just like her; I wanted to have a purpose, something to work hard on for the rest of my life. So I decided to write. What I’ve learned over the past two years is that God has given every one of us a gift. Some of us have the same gift as someone else, and though we may feel that we are the worst at using that gift, we need to keep using it. We need to keep polishing it up, we need to ask God for wisdom in using that gift correctly, and strength when we feel like everyone else is better at it than us. Remember that God gave us that gift for a reason; we need to use it how He wants us to use it. We shouldn’t just throw it away because we feel like someone else is better; think about J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, they were both excellent writers, but wrote very differently. They didn’t give up because they thought the other was a better writer; they had completely different styles, and they were prodigious at their unique styles. They are two of the best writers in the world, because they didn’t give up. Your style is unique. God gave it to you, use it wisely, and (I know you hear it a lot from cheesy movies), but please, do not give up because of other people. Keep pushing on; you will become amazing, even if no one else sees it, God does, even if no one else cares, God does, do it for Him.