Standing Tall

Audio By Carbonatix

I want to encourage everybody reading this to stand tall. It’s a simple thought, and I truly think it applies to everybody. Here’s what I mean: We all have unique gifts and assets. We can all use these skills and perspectives to touch other people’s lives and to help them. I believe that our unique giftings are actually gifts from God, and we have these talents and abilities in order to share them with the people around us. 

If you find yourself disagreeing with me and not believing that you have a unique gift (or that somebody in your life that is hard for you to celebrate has a unique gift) that is an asset to the people around you, I hope you’ll keep reading! 

We all have unique gifts, but our gifts aren’t always noticed and celebrated by the people in our environment, so we might not see them as gifts or strengths. I’m going to list a bunch of characteristics and skills that are absolutely unique strengths and abilities, even if they may not have been recognized as being in that category: encouraging, serving, comforting, patience, generosity, compassion, including, supporting, leading, thinking, confidence, communicating, optimism, caution, organizing, curiosity, inspiring, risk-taking, and so many others! 

My hope is that you saw yourself reflected somewhere in that list, and that the list got you thinking about other skills and strengths you have that I didn’t mention. I want to briefly touch on the idea that sometimes our greatest strength can be our greatest weakness, when it’s misapplied. For people with strengths that are more “background” strengths, if they go too “all in” on them, they can start to disappear as they prioritize others to an unhealthy degree. For people (like me) with strengths that are more “forward” strengths, if we go too “all in” on them, we can start to inflate ourselves or our idea of ourselves if we prioritize our own ideas and preferences to an unhealthy degree. 

Like most things, it takes some time and effort to figure out how to appropriately use our gifts and abilities. And it will take constant tweaking and attention over the course of our lives. But it’s worth all of this effort, because when we find the sweet spot and we figure out how to use our gifting in service to others, it’s amazing the impact that it can make! 

Seriously, think with me about how you could use gifts like comforting, confidence, optimism, or curiosity to make an impact on the world around you! And in the settings where that gift is currently not being displayed by others, that impact will be even greater. That’s why I want to encourage each of us to find a way to live as our genuine selves and to stand tall. We each bring a unique spark into our world and our relationships. And when we show up, we have the opportunity to make the world and the relationships and the people around us better.

Find your gift or ability that you can use to help and encourage other people. And then be intentional about using your gifts and abilities that way. When you do that, you won’t just be building others up; you’ll also be setting a great example for them to follow as they work to figure out how to do the same with their own gifts and abilities. When we start living this out, we’ll be winning more often at home.