[To watch a video of today's blog, please click here: https://youtu.be/frh1nej2pFo]

I've been told, "It's more blessed to give than receive." I don't know if that's true, but I thought it would be great to put it to the test - with your help. Are you up for this?

G&T stands for, "Gin and Tonic," which I like, but also, "Gifted and Talented." You are gifted and talented, though I appreciate that you often may not feel that way. Being human comes with gifts pre-installed! My favourite gift that you have is your smile. You also have that ability to share a kind word of encouragement. On top of that, you have some pretty nifty ideas... and ideas are brilliant because when you give them away you find that you still have them too!

I wonder if you'd press pause for a moment and think about your other gifts and talents?

How about the arts? Can you draw? Can you paint? Can you sculpt? Can you sing? Can you play an instrument? Can you knit, sew, crochet? Do you enjoy a craft?

Then there are languages. Can you write original material? Can you write poems? Are you good at articulating ideas?

And the sciences – and maths! Do you have gifts and talents here? Are you good with figures? Can you fix things? Are you good with your hands in an engineering kind of way?

In a certain well-known story, 3 Wise Men brought their own gifts to make this season special. I'm going to encourage you today to give away three gifts or share three aspects of your talents.

This will usually mean giving your gift of time. It could be as straightforward as the gifts we began with today: sharing a smile with as many people as possible, deliberately giving the gift of encouraging words to someone, and investing your ideas in someone else who'd find them valuable.

If you pressed pause and thought about arts, languages, and science there may be a card you could make, something you could knit, figure-work you could help someone with, something you could fix for someone... a planned act of kindness.

Finally, I'd love you to give yourself a gift. As we thought about arts, languages, and sciences it may well be that you wished you had a gift or talent in some of these areas. I'm going to ask you to commit to giving yourself the gift of learning a new talent... than can then become a gift that goes on giving.

Above all, once we've put to the test the idea that is it more blessed to give than to receive, I'd love to hear your stories of how it was true for you.

Lex

A Moodscope member.