Career, Family = God's Gifts

So much to do, yet what do I do?  I write a blog.

Career and Family = Gifts from God.

At a marriage conference we went to a month ago, one of the things that they began the sessions off with is that one's spouse is God's gift to you.  Sometimes that can be hard to see...but then that is when we begin focusing on the tough parts of relationship.  Leah indeed is God's gift to me.  Read on and you'll see.  And thankfully I'm God's gift to her.

The idea of God's gift has then translated into other aspects of my life.  I have MANY interests.  What I am mostly interested in is learning about new things.  I like the theory, but I like it applicable.  Nonetheless I have trouble narrowing the field of interest.  I am interested in personal study of:  theology, ministry, cross-cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, social work, behavioral psychology/organizational leadership, mobilization and marketing, spirituality, biblical studies, family studies, human geography, library and information science...the list will never stop.  If you think think that all those things hurt your eyes, think about Leah's ears every day when she hears..."Oh, I am interested in that.  Maybe I should get a master's or even PhD in that."  She probably hears that 2-3 times a day.  Yet she is still around.  She's God's gift to me.

Sometimes my scattered interests lead me into existential problems.  Who am I?  What is my purpose?  How do I specialize myself with soooo many interests.  As a result I try to also be a student of myself.  I've had to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder test a few times for various seminaries and organizations that I've worked for.  Currently I am an Input, Ideation, Intellect, Learner, and Belief.  This means lots of time inputting information (study) and output (teaching/disseminating info).  In reading the descriptions of these things, the should do's are "take time to study" and "find outlets to give your information".

So as a missionary who will be an internship director as well as giving courses and training, what do I get to do?  Study and keep current on pertinent information (which seems like everything), and then advise and facilitate learners letting them input information and disseminate it to me.  Awesome.  God's gift to me.

Then, to go along with this career that I'm on, I have a wife who has wanted to be a missionary since she was like a fetus.  God only contained her for 9 months until she broke in on the world and has been a missionary to people around her ever since.  And our daughter, who is a pretty flexible traveler and handles new situations pretty well.  My family is a missionary family.  God's gift to me.

What is cool about all this, is that I get to be God's gift to my wife, my career, my family too.  I think having these realizations mean I must be more consciously thankful for the gifts I receive and more consciously aware of whether I am truly being a gift myself or just a selfish receiver.