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ave you ever noticed that there is something you can do that seems to come easy to you? It comes to you so effortlessly that it frustrates your friends and co-workers. In most cases, you never noticed until someone pointed it out. Perhaps you can remember names, or engage with people you've never met at such a level that you feel like an old friend. Perhaps you can remember numbers, or get an insight into the meaning of something before anyone else does. Perhaps you can see how things go together with very little effort, or explain how something works even if you never used the item before. Perhaps you can understand someone's feelings without ever having experienced what they have been through. Most people take their unique personal characteristic for granted; it was not something they learned. It is not something they have to think about. Over time, in the interaction with others and situations, the recognition of the personal character comes to light. In sustained observation, parents begin to notice something different about each child; something unique. Those associated with raising children will often declare they are amazed with how different each child is even when they came from the same parents.
Don't be surprised any more, for there is a metaphysical, philosophical, and theological truth that demonstrates each person is endowed with a unique personal characteristic. Some call this characteristic talents, strengths, styles, or even skills. The world is full of assessments to identify, qualify, even quantify, the depth and strength of personality characteristics. This assessment is meant in some way used to measure what a person should be doing with their life. Some assessments try to predict the odds for success of life and work options. These are even used to match characteristics for the potential of personal relationships.
Over the years, I have come to re-format the focus and for the sake of this journey of self-discovery, a primary simple truth: Each person has a gift, a personal characteristic they are endowed with from the moment they came into existence; the moment they were conceived. They were created with this gift which is to be the center point of their life's journey. I define it as the D.N.A.; Divine Natural Attribute. It is part of our soul; it is part of who we are as a unique individual. Aristotle referred to it in his treatise on psychology, On the Soul. Thomas Aquinas, a student of Aristotle's work, went so far as to reference the soul with supernatural gifts. Supernatural, this writer declared, does not reference the soul's ability to do supernatural things, but rather that the soul received a gift by the creator. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles II, 68).
You have a unique gift; I have a unique gift, and each person you will encounter today has a unique gift. Don't let your gift be confused with your strengths or your skills. Think of multiple talents as the strengths that feed your ability to live your gift, to share your gift, and to sustain the energy of your gift when you run out of your own energy. Skills on the other hand, are the functionalities you have learned along the way to make up for the demand on you to service a job, a task, or relationship, where you do not have talents.
