gratitude: day 29

today i'm grateful for talents and gifts.

and i love that each person's talents and gifts are unique.

some are obvious. i really enjoy playing the piano and i consider myself talented at it. although i have logged many, many hours of practice time for the last 23 years of playing {i started when i was five!}, it really did come pretty easily to me. i think i'm a good sight-reader because i didn't always practice as i should {if any piano students are reading this, please ignore that last sentence} and i would have to kind of b.s. it to my teacher on piano lesson day. now that i'm a teacher, i'm pretty sure she knew i didn't practice, but i will say that some students are better at gliding through a lesson than others, practice or not. ryan has an obvious talent for languages. he picks up on them very quickly and understands a lot about them that many people don't catch onto - tones, accents, etc.

some talents or gifts we have to work really hard for. i love running. i'm not "talented" at it as far as competition, but i can put one leg in front of the other over and over and over...and i consider that a gift. i have to run often in order to keep my skill level up - i lose the mileage much faster than i gain it. leah now has a talent for running as well - and believe you me she had to work hard for it. she continues to work hard for it each day.

others, not so much. i'm very talented at being sarcastic. and i really don't work all that hard at it. hehehe. ryan's really talented at cleaning the bathtub and doing the dishes. phew!

i'm really grateful that ryan and i have different gifts and talents when it comes to interacting with leah. she needs some of what both of us have to offer. and we need some of what she has to offer. i'm beginning to realize her talents and gifts are going to be very different than mine, but i know i can learn a lot from what she has to give.

i'm grateful that my mom had particular gifts that she was able to share with me {and hopefully she passed some of them onto me!} when i was little.

i hope i can continue to grow my own talents and use the gifts i have been given to continue to bless my life and hopefully bless the lives of others.

i'm grateful for talents and gifts.