Last spring I worked down at our local Farmer's Market that has been open seasonally in Stanwood for as long as I can remember. Their farm is located just 20 minutes away and they have a larger market there. Right now they have great fruit, vegetables, fresh bread, veggie starts, herb plants, flower plants galore...it is fresh and beautiful there.
I started working there again last week on Thursdays and Fridays. The people who come in are thrilled to be looking at and purchasing plants knowing just how they are going to place them in their planters or their yard. Some are buying vegetable starts to get their garden going. Some are stalking up on their veggies for a great week of fresh food. Many come in just to buy asparagus which they get fresh each week...and the price is always great.
People come in each year to this local market....they know the owner Jennifer...they ask for her...she remembers them by name and what they like to buy...she knows so much about plants and vegetables and fruit...she treats the customers like precious jewels and they come back each year, each week during their open season because they feel welcome and know they are cared for.
Jen is passionate about what she does. I was listening to her the other day. She told everyone who came in about all of the great plants and varieties that she just unloaded from her van and knew every last detail...I listened to her tell them how wonderful and great these plants were. I listened to her tell about the vegetables in the store and how fresh they were...giving them ideas for dinner...giving ideas for their gardens....opening up their imaginations to what they could do with the plant they were holding in their hand.
She is passionate about her business and she loves to share it with others. She is living in her gift...she is giving and caring and full of life...she loves plants and fresh vegetables and fruit.
As I was watching her share her passion with others...I felt God open up this light to me...showing me how He has given us unique gifts and talents...and he desires for us to share them with others...not keep them to ourselves...to live passionately and joyfully.
God has given us this life to live...he has planted gifts and talents in to our hearts...he has chosen us uniquely to share with others with passion...what that passion looks like is different for each of us...
1 Corinthians 12:4-5 "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord."
In a book I am reading the author states "We are all experts at something, and no one excels at everything. We often compare ourselves to others and become discouraged....we overlook and minimize the gifts we have been given, because we are focused on what we don't have or can't do as well as others." (One Month to Live by Kerry and Chris Shook)
What are you passionate about?
I love how my friend Jennifer takes her love of plants and fresh food...and she has opened up this market for others to enjoy and she uses her gift of joy and compassion...and others are blessed because of it. People wait for her to open. People wait for their fresh berries every year. People wait for her Begonia and Geraniums and tomato plants. And it isn't just because she has great plants...others have great plants too...but Jen pours her passion in to it and shares it with others in the gift of joy that she has...she has tapped in to what she loves and uses her gifts that God placed in her heart and she is using them to bless others.
She is not in the national spotlight doing something in world view...she is in the territory God gave her...and she is choosing to do what God has called her to do...and she is changing lives through her love....people leave her market...smiling and cared for. And they come back...
I sat and watched her the other day in awe knowing that God has placed passion in each of us and desires us to use what He has given us....and this is the life time he gave us to use them in. Let us not waste these gifts, talents and passions.
What are your gifts? Take a few minutes and write down a few things that you know you are gifted at. God gave them to you...writing them down is not bragging it is a fact..Ask God to show you how He wants you to use these gifts with His passion.
Have a great weekend.
Love, Teresa
No comments:
Post a Comment