I have never made the claim of being a scholar when it comes to the English language.  Sometimes I misuse words and sometimes I misspell them, although modern technology has taken care of most of that.  I know I mess up on defining them occasionally so I thought I would go out on a limb and define a few words in this post.

I will be honest, I did not look these words up and I might be totally wrong with the way I define them.That being said, it really won’t matter, because it is not about what they mean it is about the difference between them and how we deal with the difference.

Oh, I forgot to tell you the words.  Sorry!  Here they are … skill, talent and gift.  I know – way too much excitement!  But here’s the deal; I hear these words used interchangeably all the time and I know that is not right.  He is the way I would use these three words and how I think they are very different.

SKILL

I think a skill is something we 100% develop.  We might have some personal characteristics, or even gifts or talents, that might facilitate the development of that skill but it still is developed nonetheless.

TALENT

I see talent as something you are born with but can improve upon with additional effort. Most, if not all athletes, are born with some athletic talent but must be life long learners if they want to be one of the best in their sport.

GIFT

This I believe, is something from God (not trying to push anything on you here – just my definition, remember).  I think we are born with gifts and no matter what we do, we will always have them.  Doesn’t mean we will use them, but we have them.

If you are still reading, you are interested or you just wanted to see if my definitions were even close to what you thought.  How did I do?

Remember when I said it didn’t really matter if I defined them right or not?  Here’s why … it doesn’t matter because the point is this … If you are not using the gifts that you were brought into this world with, you are not living the life you were designed to live. I don’t care what you call them – if your life circumstances are not allowing you to use the gifts that the good Lord blessed you with, you are not where you need to be.

I imagine I will get some push back on this but that’s OK – it’s what I think and I will own that.  If you agree with me great.  If you disagree with me great.  I would suggest being more concerned with what you think about you than what you think about me.

Let me put it another way – How much sense does it make that you ignore the things that come easy, that come natural, in trade for the things that you have to work really hard for.  I’m not a big “destiny” guy and I am not even going to try and define it but I do thing some things were meant to be and some were not.

This I definitely believe – we were all created to become the person that God designed us to be.  Who are we to mess with His plan.  Again, no “faith” statement here, I am simply telling you what I think.  I am not trying to convince you of anything.

But I do have a question for you to think about – “Are you trying to become something that you do instead of focusing on who you already are?”  Just a thought!

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Barry Smith www.buildingwhatmatters.com 4/13/13 photo by author