One of my favorite quotes is from a former American president, Theodore Roosevelt, who said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

Does this mean that we all have to be highly gifted? Not at all. The important thing is that we use the gifts that God has given to each of us and use these to the best of our ability.

Or as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “If a man is called to be a street-sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or as Beethoven composed music, or as Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street-sweeper who did his job well.’”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to know what my God-given gifts are, and develop and use them to the best of my ability for serving You and mankind—always for Your glory. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Solomon (Ecclesiastes 9:10, NIV).