Gift or Passion?

This is a bit of a chicken and egg question... If I'm gifted at something, how has that become the case?

Was I born gifted in an area, my natural talent lead me to be skilled, my skill enabled me to enjoy putting my gift into practice and my enjoyment makes me passionate about this?

Or, was I born with no more or less skill than anyone else. Instead of being born with a natural gift, maybe I was born or given early in life a passion for an area. That passion would have fueled my interest, my interest would have lead to learning and practicing, my skill level would have increased, and I could be perceived by others or myself as gifted in that area.



For some things this will be a nature vs. nurture debate, but I think that for most skills nature is an impossible answer. For example, I do not think that nature has lead to a baby to ever born with an instinct for how to place their fingers in a beautiful way on a piano keyboard. A baby could be born, however, with a natural instinct for melody or rhythm. So maybe it depends on how specific the skill we're looking at is.

From both self-analysis questionnaires and comments from friends I know that I have the 'gift of teaching' paired with my faith. This has nothing to do with classrooms. Instead, when I define this I usually say something like "After I have learned something about God, I often have a passionate desire to pass this knowledge and excitement on to others." Here we see the two words in question. The label is identified as a gift, but my experience is of a passion for something.

I think that God put a passion for teaching into my heart, and throughout life this has lead me to make decisions and seek opportunities that will enable me to practice what I am passionate about. Many of the evidences I have for backing up this order of development are memories of learning by doing things badly! I know that I am better at passing on a message today than I was when younger because of practice. I don't think God really gave me a natural gift, but the seed of passion.



Read another post about Choice...

Image source: http://abtropical.com/Our%20Produce/passion-fruit/