Believe it or not, you do take yourself with you wherever you go

Today I want you to think about your talents and then to put your thoughts into a prayer.  Here’s how it works.  Read the 4 following short quotations and then write a brief prayer.  My prayer is below these quotations.  Here we go…

* “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman  (Influential American author, philosopher, theologian, teacher and civil rights leader.)

* “Be who God meant for you to be, and you’ll set the world on fire.” — St. Catherine of Siena (One of the patron saints of Italy, along with St. Francis of Assisi)

* “To thine own self be true” — Polonius’s last piece of advice to his son Laertes in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.“

* “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” — Annie Dillard (Pulitzer-prize winning author for 1975 book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

 My prayer:

“Father in heaven, all I have is a gift from you.  I have nothing that was not given to me.  My gifts and talents are yours.  I merely manage what you give me.  You have created me and my gifts for a place of your choosing.  I am truly myself when I am finally there, following your call, and not using my talents to merely indulge myself.  So set me free to use the gifts you gave me for my neighbor’s need and for your glory.  Amen.”