Have you ever received a gift and let it sit on the shelf, unopened and unused?

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has done that.

But have you received a gift from God that you have been too afraid to open and use? Yeah, me too.

That is what these #write31days have been about for me (yes, I realize we are only at day 18).

My original plan was to write 31 days of encouragement. Then circumstances changed and I wasn’t sure I could do it. How could I be encouraging while life was going crazy around me?

So as the calendar turned to October and I decided to follow through on my commitment to myself and the other 31 dayers, my focus changed. It started out about finding our way in this new situation.

But God has a way of bringing me back around. As the month progressed I started finding different bible verses that spoke to me or encouraged me on this new journey.

And as I wrote, I was feeling encouraged. I was feeling like I could make it through this. I was feeling like God was bringing me back to the plan of encouragement.

You see, I have been hearing about this from God, even started to believe myself that maybe I have the gift of encouragement. I have never thought of myself as having that gift. Living life as a cancer ‘thriver’ never really seemed that encouraging to me. It was just the hand I was dealt and I figured I might as well make the best of what I have.

So today I found this verse from 1 Peter 4:10

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,  as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Today, and for the foreseeable future, I am going to use the gift of encouragement to serve my husband. To show him God’s grace, that he may believe that there is power in prayer, power in trusting in God, and power in faith.

What gift from God do you need to take off the shelf, dust off and share as a faithful servant?