Helping Bible Students Find Their “Hidden” Gifts

Ask any room of Christian adults if they know the gifts God gave them to serve others while sharing their faith and only a few will raise their hands. The church has left a lot of talent sitting on the sidelines because people aren’t aware of the gifts God gave them and therefore often aren’t using them to serve Him.

At our workshops, we constantly encourage adults working with children and teens in Bible classes to help their students discover their gifts. We even have free gift inventories you can use on our website.

One of the suggestions we make is to focus with young people on the gifts God gave them like those He gave the people building the Tabernacle. Today we might call them talents or personality traits, but they are still gifts from God.

If a young person is gifted by God to teach or is artistic, those gifts are more likely to be recognized and used by the church. Other gifts unfortunately go unnoticed, under used and under appreciated.

If you are working on your students to identify gifts, it’s crucial that you are aware of these less obvious gifts and see if your students may have one or more of them.

What are they? In no particular order: organizational skills, analytical, self control, computer coding, networking, math, research, origami, marketing, humor, photography, social media, sports/athletic, juggling, enthusiasm, encouragement, listening, time management, problem solving, detail oriented, asking great questions, risk management, putting together strong teams, drama, puppetry, creativity, adaptability, languages, science, history, cooking, wood working, car repair and more.

If your students have one or more of these gifts, you may have to be creative in helping them find ways to develop and then use those talents to serve God. It’s extremely important that you do. Understanding their place in God’s Kingdom – the types of good works they can do – can give your students the sense of purpose and belonging they need as they grow into a more mature faith. It’s worth taking the extra time and effort to help them through the process.

Categories Elementary, Faith Based Academic Program, Mentoring, Service, Teens
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