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Working Geniuses and God-Given Talents

Take a Look at 6 Working Geniuses and Your Natural Talents

A genius by no means am I! However, I wanted to reflect on an exercise we did last fall at our annual planning retreat for work. I sell real estate, aid in running our construction business, homeschool and am a contributor to this blog. In preparing for our retreat, we took an assessment that reviewed our 6 working geniuses by The Table Group. The Table Group states that everyone has natural, God-given talents when it comes to work (and my guess is…life in general). After answering a number of questions, you are provided with your results. Although there are six geniuses it is narrowed down to two areas considered your trues gifts/geniuses.

They have great genius names: Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement and Tenacity. I would love to go in depth with a full description of each, but for the sake of the article will move on. What is truly interesting is that often a person perceives themselves as one thing, but the results show another. Several agents and I were somewhat surprised with our results. The Table Group is very spot on that God gives all of us many talents. But I ask, how often do we fail to let those talents truly shine?

My geniuses showed Enablement (gifted and derive energy and joy from providing others with encouragement and assistance for projects) and Discernment (gifted and derive energy and joy from using my intuition and instincts to evaluate and assess ideas or plans). As I look at my career, this blog and my personal life, it does show how much joy that I have helping people buy and sell homes and share tools and resources for growing a deeper relationship with Christ on this blog for instance. However, the discernment often finds me in the “failure to launch phase” as I am over analyzing things to the extreme. I am never stepping out on the ledge and taking that risk to be successful where I am. God has given me what I need because he sees me perfect in his eyes.

There are numerous verses in the bible that talk about talents. Ephesians 2:10 reads “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” James 1:17 reads “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” and 1 Corinthians 12:5-6 reads “and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

As I reflected then and again now on my geniuses/gifts, how often do we spend a lifetime in careers, positions, boards, and more because we feel it is the “right thing” to do versus trusting in the Lord that he will provide and let us shine. Shine in a way we have never dreamed of being able to do but that God has always known we could do because those are the gifts he gave us.

I encourage each of you to reflect on your true God given talents. In fact, anyone can take the assessment that I mentioned if they choose or one from the many other places on the web which offer something similar. I pray that at the end of each day you have found the joy and energy from the works that you do. If not, maybe it is time to take the plunge and grab hold of the path that God has for you! Pray each day that he shows you want he wants you to do!

Contributed by Jessica Clemens

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