Diary of a Heart Mom: Our Hidden Talents

Today was the annual Serve the City. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a day when many churches among Lexington get together with many opportunities for community service. Everyone groups together and disperses into the community at the same time. Daniel and I worked with some members from Immanuel Baptist and Crossroads Christian church at the Irishtown Baptist Mission. IBM does a lot for it's surrounding community members. It's a small church serving it's neighbors which most of it's members are uneducated and are poor. The church provides hot meals, worship services, GED classes, and they help the children of uneducated parents learn how to read and write hoping that this will help to keep them in school--in their area only 1% of children graduate high school. IBM just got a new director last year and she stepped into a lot....the church is very unorganized, old, breaking down, lacking clean water, working toilets, etc. It was almost sad because this church tries to do so much good for it's people and sometimes their food is the only meal that people will get.

While at the church, we put on a fresh coat of paint on the walls, repainted the trim, created stairs for the elderly to be able to step up on a platform, organized and cleaned our two rooms including a craft closet and a room that we turned from storage into an area where children can have their own place to play, read, etc. We also fixed and painted tables, book shelves, etc. There is still much work to be done in helping this place and we only had today, but we got a lot done and I plan on returning on my own to do more. Anyone want to join me?

So you may ask why am I spending so much time blogging about this? Well...let me start off saying that I'm not proud to admit that when the day started out, I was not happy about going to IBM. I had never heard of them, I didn't know anyone besides Dan that was going and there were so many other great projects that I thought I knew I would love. I complained to Dan for a few minutes and then we were on our way. When I got to the church and heard the director speak about the mission, I instantly had a "seed planted in me". We started working right away and I immediately was drawn the children's "wanna be" room. It wasn't on the list that the director wanted us to complete but once I got the idea, I decided I was adding it to the list. I'm SO SO grateful for a few other nice people whom I don't even know their names who openly let me take the lead and did anything and everything to help me. The more I worked...the happier I got...and then a fire was placed in my heart. Dan would come up to me and say we need to leave soon and I kept responding 10 more minutes....15 more minutes...I'm on a streak, let me continue. One lady that was helping me, mentioned to me that I had everything taken care of and she was going to help others paint. Then I had a gentlemen who was basically my "muscles". He took out all of my trash, cut wood for me, moved tables for me, etc....as I was organizing the craft closet, he commented to Dan..."is she always like this?"....Dan replied "At home, yes". The gentlemen said "Haha....I'm doing nothing, I'm just sitting back letting her do her thing and doing what she tells me to do".

So what does this have to do with my title of Hidden Talents? Sometimes when I hear others talk about how Heavenly Father has given them talents, I get down on myself because I feel like I don't have any TRUE talents. I was a cheerleader for years but that is done and over with, I have no musical talent at all including reading music, instruments, singing, etc., I'm not SUPER crafty, I can't cook....UGH no wonder I couldn't do pageants that had talent portions...I am officially talentless. Except today. I have done a lot of volunteer work and service in my day so why does today stand out from all the rest I don't know. But for the first time ever, I felt like I received more from my serving that anyone I was actually doing service for. The compliments, stares, and feelings I got from people today who were watching me work made me realize that my home, my "office", my cleaning....all of it, is my talent! Give me the materials and I am a great organizer! I love cleaning up places, organizing, setting up displays, etc. For once, I felt I was needed and accomplished something meaningful. This opportunity has been an amazing rewarding experience for me. I know I have more talents...I'm just not sure of them yet but maybe through me serving others, I can get to know myself better.