God has created every person with unique abilities and gifts. His desire is that we take delight in our gifts and use them as a vehicle to share His love.

Every single person has been individually handcrafted with different abilities. (Psalm 139; Ephesians 2:10)  Just think about some of the people in your life (family, friends, co-workers).  Although there are many similarities, I bet there are also differences in personality, hobbies, interests, abilities, talents…

Noticing the areas of giftedness of others seems to come more easily than seeing it in ourselves. Maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t have any talents.”  I would encourage you replace that thought with: “I haven’t discovered what my talents are yet.”  Imagine going on an hunt for buried treasure.  There are some treasured talents buried in you, you simply have to find them.

2 Simple Ways to Help You Discover Your Talents/Abilities

1.  Pray.   Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”   What better way to get to know yourself than by asking the One who Created you?
2. Let Go of Fear of Failure and Start trying out new Hobbies.  I used to be completely convinced that not a lick of talent resided in me.  Everyone else had talents.  But not me.  Now I know that I simply hadn’t gotten out of my comfort zone and opened myself up to the possibility that perhaps God did create me with some abilities.  After getting married, Jonathan helped me identify and correct some erroneous thinking in my mind and replace those thoughts with true ones. (2 Corinthians 10:5) Little by little I began to step out of my comfort zone and try things that had always interested me.  And, little by little, I began to discover that there were many things that I enjoyed doing.  For instance, playing the piano, singing and decorating cupcakes. So I continued doing them.  The more I practiced, the better I got.

One hobby that I super-enjoy is cupcake decorating.   For me, every part is exciting.  From choosing the flavor of cake, to baking, decorating, designing and delivering. It’s not just baking cupcakes to me, it’s designing a gift for someone.  A way of expressing my appreciation and love.

God has granted me the opportunity to bless others with cupcakes. Below are pictures from 4 different events that I was able to share love to others through cupcakes. (Sorry that some of the photos are a little dark.  When I took the pictures, I never dreamed I’d be posting them online they were just for me as a reminder.)

#1 Lilac & Yellow Birthday

From then I caught the cake-decorating bug and couldn’t get enough.  I searched out new techniques to learn, bought this beginner’s Wilton Cake decorating kit  and was ready to practice on cupcakes.  But there was a problem, 24 cupcakes are way too many for 2 people.  Make no mistake, though, Jonathan and I are capable of downing them all!  That’s exactly why I waited for a special event to practice.  If not, we would both have diabetes from so much sugar (especially since it runs in our family)!

#2 M’s Quinceañera

Below are pictures from a young lady’s Quincenera (think huge “Sweet 16”, but celebrated at age 15 in the Hispanic culture).

You can find the video tutorial I used to make the dress here.

#3 E & M’s Crazy Birthday Owl

I looked everywhere for examples of owl cupcake cakes online, but none that I found were exactly what I was looking for.  So I winged it (no pun intended).  I iced and re-iced that poor owl until I was more or less satisfied with it.  Our friend’s daughter was happy.  And none of the kids seemed to mind the 4 layers of icing.

# 4 Surprise Baby Carriage

A couple in the Hispanic congregation received a special surprise this year:  they were going to have their 4th child–and their 1st girl.

 

If cupcake decorating interests you as well, here are some beginner tutorials:  how to use a piping bag, Basic piping techniques, Basic piping techniques 2.  YouTube and Pinterest are great resources for discovering more tutorials.

CUPCAKE DECORATING TIP:  Before decorating, cover the area where you will be working with parchment or wax paper.  This makes cleanup a lot easier!

The purpose of this article isn’t to teach how to perfectly decorate cupcakes, but how to use our abilities (no matter how small they may seem) to plant seeds of love in others’ lives.  Discover your gifts and delight in using them to spread God’s love!

So…how has God gifted you?

What is something you’d like to try, but never have?  I’d love to hear from you in the comment section!