Is Everyone Gifted...

Is everyone gifted to teach?  Gifted?  Gifted is a unique term.  Gifted means to me that someone has an unexplainable, natural, defined talent or ability to do something.  Using that definition, my answer is, "No.  Everyone is not gifted to teach."

I wrote yesterday that everyone should teach or, better, I actually quoted a master Teacher.  I also wrote that everyone can teach.  I also wrote that the Spirit of God can give Christians the ability to teach.  So, in a sense, if the Christian gets his wisdom and ability to teach from God, then every Christian teacher could be said to be "gifted" to teach.

Every good gift comes down from the Father of Lights.
James in the New Testament

 I was at the rock climbing gym about 5 months ago.  I had completed over a year of therapy, changed my entire life and had some low invasive treatments which totally relieved 20 years of pain from an old rock climbing injury.  I was excited to climb again and to be able to climb with my kids.  As I struggled to traverse some 50 feet of wall, I kept noticing this teenage kid just grabbing anything or everything, climbing whatever he wanted and, with feet dangling, making us all look horrible.

5 months later, he is still a superior (they say he is "gifted") climber but we are climbing 150 foot traverses and have doubled our skill.  Two to three days a week of fun and hard work and we continue to improve.  I would not say that everyone is gifted to climb but I would say that everyone can learn to climb.  It was harder to climb when I had an extra 30 pounds on my body but therapy and impending diabetes spurred discipline that ran it away.  I am older and do not have the muscle recovery adavantage that a young man has but my strength is still improving. I will never compete at the Open Level nor will I get my picture in a climbing magazine - it is neither that important or worth the risk.

Everyone can teach.  Some will exhibit a gift that we stand back and watch - astonished.  That should not defeat us but provide us the opportunity to have hope and to "learn the moves" by watching and asking questions.  Time and effort will improve our teaching skill.  Perhaps we will have to lose a little "weight" by dropping things that disable us or hold us back.  We will definitely have to try new moves and take challenges.  We may be "older" dogs that take a bit longer to learn new tricks but we can and should teach.  Perhaps we will never be the "out front on the cover" teacher (and perhaps we don't want to be) but we can teach.

...teaching them all that I have taught you...
Jesus

 Who will you teach today and why will you teach them?  What will you teach?  Do you know how to teach?  Have you tried?