Stephanie at Our Adventures in Learning tagged me for this way back on December 7th. I’m a little slow, but still thought it would be fun to participate. There are LOTS of random things I’ve never shared on the blog. So, here goes:

1. SPIRITUAL GIFTS ASSESSMENT: While organizing some piles of old paperwork in my office awhile ago, I ran across the results of the spiritual gifts assessment I took through our church some time back. The Executive Pastor who went over the survey with me at that time told me he was surprised that my highest scoring spiritual gift was actually a tie between leadership and administration. He said he would normally see someone score higher in one or the other but not both equally. Also, while creativity didn’t make the top three in my assessment, it was close enough to the top three that he said that was also interesting because normally admin people aren’t so creative and vs. He didn’t know me very well at the time, but ventured to guess that I was realistic enough to recognize when something wouldn’t work and creative enough to figure out how to make something work. He was right. That’s pretty much the way I am. I love to think outside the box, but am also willing to recognize that some of my ideas are just too far out there to be reasonable (although my family may not agree with this since I do manage to get us into some pretty odd situations sometimes.)

Here are the results of that assessment, which I don’t think I’ve shared on the blog before. I’m also sharing the description for each of these since I know these tests can vary a little bit from one to the next.

1. Administration – The dvine enablement to understand what makes an organization function and the special ability to plan and execute procedures that accomplish the goals of the ministry.

…and…

Leadership – The divine enablement to cast vision, motivate, and direct people to harmoniously accomplish the purposes of God.

2. Wisdom – The divine enablement to apply spiritual truth effectively to meet the need for a specific situation.

3. Faith – The divine enablement to act on God’s promises with confidence and unwavering belief in his ability to fulfill his purposes.

…and…

Giving – The divine enablement to contribute money and resources to the work of the Lord with cheerfulness and liberality.

4. Discernment – The divine enablement to distinguish between truth and error, to discern the spirits, differentiating between good and evil, right and wrong.

5. Creative Communication– The divine enablement to communicate God’s truth through a variety of art forms.

I’m thinking it was a “God thing” that I happened to run across the results of this survey at this particular point in time because it has served to remind that God created me the way I am and as long as I continue to do the things I do to please Him then I’m on the right road.

Without going into any lengthy details, the reminder of how God wired me is particularly meaningful at this point in time because almost a year ago a close friend and I found ourselves on opposite sides in a particular situation. Other friends jumped in trying to get several people (my friend and I included) involved in that situation placed in the right seats on the proverbial bus. At that time, I felt the Lord prompting me to put aside my personal desires for this particular thing (iow, keep quiet) and go along with the flow (iow, let the Lord be my defender) even though it nearly killed me to do so. After a few months, my friend decided to exit the bus to head in a different direction and we’ve since lost touch. I stayed on the bus to finish what I had committed to for this school year, but the entire ordeal left me contemplating whether or not I was even on the right road let alone the right bus!

Fast forward a year. That difficulties of that situation left me unsure of my ability to effectively lead, motivate, guide, and direct in this particular group in the future. Recent conversations with friends both inside and outside this specific circle, reminders from the Lord about past personal successes, and finally finding and going over the results of this assessment again, have all helped me recognize that even though various personal attacks were lobbed against me last year I needn’t take them personally nor internalize them because they were probably more accurately directed against a philosophy that I hold even if not recognized by some as such.

I’m thankful for the many friends who have recently sought to reaffirm me and my God-given abilities reminding me that no one can make me feel inferior without me giving them a foothold. And, I also appreciate the efforts of those who are currently striving to reignite my enthusiasm for some of the projects and visions God has given me. I’m still not sure what direction the Lord will lead for this coming year, but at least I can rest assured that He created me the way I am and I should not hold back using the gifts He has given me.

2. I LOVE to travel. More specifically, I like to plan vacations. On one vacation a few years ago I made the mistake of thinking outloud about the next one while we were still on the current one. I NEVER lived that down (LOL). Just a few weeks ago I made an even bigger mistake and that was to think outloud about the vacation after next before we’ve even left on the one I’m currently planning (LOL). ACK! I just can’t help myself… as soon as one thing (vacation, project, … insert anything else here….) is about figured out then I’m already on to the next thing!

3. Football Cheerleader – Many will find this hard to believe, I’m sure. I was a football cheerleader in high school and here’s the picture to prove it. I’m on the right.

4. Curly Hair – Ok. So, that one is pretty noticeable. What you don’t know about my hair is that I’m at least 3/4 gray! YIKES! And, it doesn’t have a thing to do with my age. Our 19 year old daughter has already pulled more than a couple of her own gray hairs!

5. Commerical Driver’s License – I’ve had one for 13 years now. When I went to renew it in December, I had completely forgotten that I needed to have a DOT physical before I could renew. I had let my physical paperwork expire because I only need it current if I’m driving a truck or bus, not a car. Anyway. Not having the DOT physical paperwork was a problem because you normally have to wait a few weeks to get an appointment for a DOT physical. Fortunately (or not), the weather and roads were horrible the day I went to get my license and one of the places that does DOT physicals had had so many cancellations they were able to fit me right in. GOOD THING because I had only allowed 2 hours for my driver’s license renewal. Even with the run around of having to go get the physical and go back to the driver’s licensing place two times, I was still able to get it all accomplished in that amount of time. The dr asked me why I needed a commercial driver’s license. I guess I don’t look like the typical truck driver type (LOL).

6. I used to work. LOL. I have been a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom for so many years now that some of my friends probably don’t know that I used to have a “real job.” I was the administrator for a three-clinic P.T. practice for the first ten years we were married. Acutally, I wasn’t the administrator for all of those ten years because I started out as the receptionist/transcriptionist and quickly worked my way up the ladder, so to speak. After that, I continued to work from home consulting with two PTs who started their own practice helping them with everything from hiring and training to writing their mission statement and P&P manual.

7. – It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I can’t just simply come up with a list of seven like the rules suggest because I can’t decide what to put for the last one. I’ve thought about some of the various volunteer things I do or organize (worship team, photography for the kids sports teams, homeschool ski program, travel basketball team, and the list goes on), how we’ve lived on a budget for over 20 years now, some of my lesser known hobbies (such as cross stitch or knitting/crocheting – you already know about scrapbooking and photography), and, again, the list goes on…. So.. in an effort to finish this blog entry *TODAY* I guess I won’t post anything for #7 (LOL). Otherwise, the rest of this blog entry would sit in draft form waiting to be published until I could decide what last thing to share. I’m sure you understand…

I’ll tag anyone who is willing to post their own list of seven. Leave me a comment so I can read your list!