June 8, 2014: Pentecost Sunday

Think about your special talents and gifts you have and how you could use them to benefit other! (In this photo; Sister Patty Wallace reads a book to kids at the library. She is the children’s outreach librarian in Indianapolis.)

Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.

As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13)

Reflection:

Do you ever wish you were as smart as your brother or sister, as good at sports as a girl you know at school, or as cool as the boy on the school bus?
Sometime we envy another person’s talents and gifts. At the same time, we often don’t see our own gifts.
It isn’t helpful to compare ourselves to others—everyone has gifts and talents and everyone has weaknesses.
It’s true of spiritual gifts, too.
Through baptism we have all received the same Holy Spirit; each person’s gifts are different and given for the good of all.

Action:

Think about your special talents and gifts; if you don’t have many ideas, ask your parents or a teacher or a good friend what talents they see in you. What can you do to develop those gifts? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see how you could use them to benefit others (your family, church, school, community).
The world needs the special gifts you have been given!