Refresh. Regrow. Renew.

My mother is very intelligent, my older sister is a great painter and my younger sister is a wonderful dancer. I am great at . . . well, nothing. I can't draw and my cats paint better than I do. I dance like Elaine from Seinfeld and there are fish who have a better memory than I do. While I don't consider myself dumb, I have difficulty with critical thinking skills and often sound like Crissy on Three's company. No this is not a pity party but a quest that I have been on since being an at-home mom. I want to find something that I am good at. The only thing I could ever come up with was my heart. I have a heart for people and would love to help everyone that I come in contact with, but that's not really a talent; its just who I am.

So today, I could barely contain the tears as I read a story with my kids. Just the Way You Are by Max Lucado. It is a story of 5 orphans who have learned that they are to be adoped by the King. They decide that they must have a gift for the King before he comes. One carves something from wood, another sings, another paints and another learns. The last one realized that she has no talent and nothing to offer the king. She loves people and loves to help them out, but that is all she is good at. So after her siblings refuse to help her find her talent, she sits on the road and sees a stranger coming to town. She talks with him and helps care for his donkey. Soon he is on his way to find someone he was looking for; but when he returns to the girl, he says that they were too busy to talk and then she realizes that he was the king. She tells the king that she has no gift but wants to be his child. The king smiled. "My dear, you gave the best gift of all-you gave your heart . . . your kindness, your time, your love. Of course you'll be my child. I love you just the way you are."

Its funny how a childs story has such an effect on me, but it truly spoke clearly that my heart and my compassion for people is my talent and I should be content with that, no . . . proud of that.