In only a few moments after submitting the last post, I began receiving entries into the Amazon card give-away! I am amazed at the AWESOME ways that some of you are planning to “gift your talents” over the summer months! I hope to share a few of your plans once the drawing is over. (Remember to submit your entry via email prior to midnight on June 10, 2012!)

As promised, here are a few ideas to help you think of ways you can use your skills, talents, and abilities as gifts to others:

1. Read to an elderly friend.

2. Read to a child.

3. Teach basic email or internet skills to non-techie friend.

4. Stuff envelopes for your school or church.

5. Plant and/or tend to the flowers at a local business, home, or church. (Get permission first!)

6. Offer to serve the food at an event so those in the host family can enjoy mingling.

7. Quiz a child on vocabulary or spelling words.

8. Walk with a friend who needs an exercise partner.

9. Teach a children’s class at your church.

10. Babysit for one hour weekly so a new mom can go to the grocery store. (Be specific on start/stop times.)

11. File music for your church’s music director.

12. Help a small business set up a database.

13. Sing or play an instrument at a care facility for the elderly.

14. Play one hour of board games with residents at a care facility for the elderly.

15. Teach a weekly class about a subject in which you have knowledge or expertise.

16. Help a friend organize a storage room, laundry room, or garage.

17. Volunteer one hour a week at a women’s shelter.

18. Volunteer one hour a week at a homeless shelter or rescue mission.

19. Be a “virtual volunteer” for a non-profit organization. (They email you proofreading or letters to “file” in the digital “files,” and you organize by topics or titles.)

20. Volunteer at your local library or hospital.

This list barely touches the surface, but I hope it will at least serve as a springboard for additional ideas! For example, number 17 is “Volunteer one hour a week at a women’s shelter.” Maybe you have a talent for “recruiting,” and you can contact churches or friends for donations such as toys, blankets, formula, etc. This can then lead to other volunteers, or perhaps yourself, using an hour each week to pick up the items. Following that, another set of volunteers helps to clean the items and prepare them for use or distribution. Which of those areas suits you best?

True service to others won’t ask for recognition, so I have chosen this giveaway not to “reward” you, but to encourage you. Sometimes a little incentive helps propel us forward to do that which we intend to do “someday.”

I look forward to receiving many more emails (petalsfromthebasket (at) gmail (dot) com, telling me about your plans for serving with the gifts entrusted to you.

Serving others is an appropriate topic to end with on this Memorial Day. It would be wrong to end this post with stopping to offer my personal word of thanks for all who have given their lives or who have sacrificed their loved ones so that I might live in freedom. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

________________________________________

Thank you for taking time to read “Using Your Gifts as Gifts.” Please feel free to leave a comment or question.