#talentsparable Archives -

God sent me a gift

In January of 2019, I started to take piano lessons. I never thought that I could take piano lessons in my 40s. I was talking to my son’s piano teacher about how even though my mom wanted me to take piano lessons when I was young, I did not get to take lessons. She immediately replied that she had adult students and if I was interested in taking lessons. By God’s grace, I said yes. By September 2019, I had started to learn my first worship song – ‘10000 reasons’. I was going through some tough times at work. It took a couple of months for me to finish that song. I loved to play this song which gave me unexplainable peace in my job situation.

One day when I went for my piano lessons, my teacher took me to the traditional piano in the recital room and asked me to play ‘10000 Reasons’ on it. I loved the sound of that piano as I had never played a traditional piano before that. I immediately had a desire to buy a used traditional piano. I came across used pianos in the Facebook marketplace with so many of them given away for free. In my mind, I did not want to go to someone’s home and take this piano for ‘free’. I was willing to pay a very small amount for it. I reached out to so many people who had listed their pianos and they all replied that someone else was taking it. I left it to God saying, “Jesus, You lead me towards that piano which You have in store for me”. By then my biggest need was a job and piano had become ‘nice to have’.

One day casually I was checking the Facebook marketplace for pianos and I saw a seller who had 4 friends in common with me, listed the piano for $50. And I realized that all 4 of them go to our church. I asked the seller two questions – “Is the Piano still available? Do you go to Calvary church?”. He replied, “Yes to both questions”. He also added that he was the principal of Calvary Christian School. In my mind, I thought that I could convince him to hold the piano for me as we went to the same church after all. At the same time, I heard these words spoken in my mind, “This piano is yours”. I know this voice that speaks because whatever I “hear” in this manner, it always comes true. But, the seller added, “Someone else is coming to see the piano. If they don’t take it, you can come and check it out”. My mind voice replied, “They won’t take it. This piano is MINE”. Before I heard back from him, we got the shocking news that my mother-in-law passed away and so my husband immediately traveled to India. I was so shaken by this unexpected situation of losing my mother-in-law and watching the funeral online. In the meantime, the seller contacted me saying that the other party had found a means to take the piano so he had to be fair and give the piano to them. The funeral was on Thursday. On Saturday evening, as I was folding the laundry, I was asking God, “God, was it You who told me about the piano or not? Because I heard in the same manner about a job too! And if ‘that voice’ was not Yours, I am doomed for the job thing too”.

The next day after attending the English church service, I was sitting at our Indian church and I got a message from the seller saying that the other party could not take the piano and asked if I still wanted it. I replied, “Praise the LORD! I knew this piano is mine!”

I took some guys from the Indian church and brought the piano home. I had prepared a spot for the piano. My husband was in doubt that the piano would be too big to fit in that spot. But guess what? The piano fit in that spot so perfectly that I believe with all my heart that God prepared that spot for my piano, though this house was built around 10 years before we even bought it.

My God sent me a gift for my birthday which is still the most valuable birthday gift that I have received thus far. And I am still taking piano lessons, doing worship every day even with all my inadequacies in skills and understanding. I have done 5 recitals so far – all of them with worship songs, twice on grand piano. The first time I ever got to play on a grand piano, I played “You raise me up” which was the song that inspired me to learn a musical instrument in the first place. Isn’t God so faithful and keen on the details?

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, And He will give you the desires of your heart.

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Handmaid of the Lord

As I sat at the watch-night service at church, pushing all my prayer requests to God to use me in more and more ways in 2023, (surprisingly I didn’t have any other requests than being used by God ) and I remembered something God had answered in 2022. In 2021, after amma went to be with the Lord, things were really difficult with dad. While juggling all of that, I had a deep desire up to the point of obligation that I wanted to use all the talents that God has given me for His Kingdom’s work. I started to even fret that if I don’t use my talents, God was going to ask me when I stand before Him. I started to earnestly pray for open doors. And my gracious God did open doors for me in 2022 in such a way that I was able to raise a big amount this year. I have contributed more than what I raised for Missions. If I had $40 at a time, I would add $10 and make it $50 and contribute.

The missions God graciously enabled me to support this year through my contributions are

Calvary Missions
Calvary Mission – Rwanda eye surgery camps
- Open doors USA – to distribute bibles in persecuted places
  - Compassion – malnourished kids
    - GEMS India
    - Homeless people in our areas
    - Elohim gospel ministries
      - Wayside shelter

I am just filled with gratitude towards God as He honored the desire of my heart and opened doors for me and gave me a purpose. My prayer is that God will make me into a vessel that will be useful for His Kingdom in many ways and not just one or two ways.

Also, God who is not a debtor to anyone provided me with the finances ahead of time to be able to cover the costs of the inventory. I was stuck in my job with no raise or promotion for 10 years. Last year God miraculously gave me a promotion and raise and so I didn’t have to worry about the expenses. Isn’t God awesome? Glorify our God with me.

Isaiah 41:9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, ‘you are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away’.

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Handmade for a mission

As an answer to my prayer, our church hosted an artisan fair to sell our handmade crafts.

By God’s grace, my booth had a great sale. As always, God came through! This opportunity itself was an answer to my prayer from last year when I asked God to give me a greater purpose. Since the day pastor announced this, I had been staying up late every night to make at least one art each day. I felt super excited and very hopeful about raising a good amount which I wanted to give entirely for the missions. God’s faithfulness is beyond what I can fathom. Every now and then, I do spend time and money at the craft store and never worried about the bills that would add up because I always enjoyed doing these handicrafts. God is not a debtor to anyone and the way He compensated me for the expenses even before I hosted the booth – one of my managers recommended me for recognition at work and I got reward points which I could redeem and I received it this week.

As we started to set up our booth, the disappointments started. It was windy and my idea to display the arts didn’t work. My spirit had gone completely down and I had no hope left that I could sell anything. My kids and I held hands and we prayed giving it all into God’s hands. Within 5 minutes, Kavitha stopped by at our booth and she suggested putting up the bookmarks to display which would hold up better against the wind. It worked! We quickly got a hang of how to greet the people who stopped by and start the conversation. By the end of the day, our CIC friends also stopped by and contributed generously and we finished well.

Some of the miracles from this event are

A missionary who is supported by Calvary and serves in Japan stopped by my booth and I felt so happy to talk to her. In my opinion, missionaries are the ones whose life holds much value before God. While this sale is being done to support missions and for a missionary to stop by – it is like a confirmation.
I had made some pieces of jewelry in the past years which I had listed on so many craft sites and they never sold. I had given up on their selling but at this fair, I sold almost every one of those.
At the end of the day, I had sold 16 pieces of art.
Today the miracles continued. After the church service, I bumped into a lady who had bought a bookmark and she started talking to me and so amazingly she started to share a couple of prayer requests. Even she kept wondering how she was saying all these things to me as we had never met before.
When I was disappointed about being unable to display the arts, my husband came up with the amazing idea of displaying them in a creative way. If not for that idea, we could not have displayed the art which I had worked hard on for a month. Jayden got great compliments from a school teacher for his marketing skills.

The reason I wanted to support missions is that it is an easier way of storing our treasures in heaven. There are lots of parts in the world where even a small dollar amount would add up to a big amount. Life is short and eternity is forever. We tend to spend our time making our life in this world comfortable and yet not knowing how long we would be here. Rather it is wise to focus on storing our treasures in heaven to make our eternity comfortable.

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Handmade with a purpose

Mathew 25:14

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his servants and gave 5 talents to one, 2 to another and 1 to another, to each according to his own ability; Then he who had received the 5 talents went and traded with them, and made another 5 talents. Likewise, he who had received 2 talents gained 2 also. But he who had received 1 talent went and dug in the ground and hid his lord’s money.

The ones who got 5 and 2 talents came and proudly shared their accomplishment of multiplying it to the lord. Their lord appreciated them and said, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord”.

Then the one who had received one talent came and said, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours”.But his lord answered to him, “You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.”

God has blessed me with so many creative skills. I work in Corporate for a living. I also love to do various stuff in my free time. My days would seem incomplete if not for these hobbies. I love to do watercolor arts with verses on greeting cards, bookmarks, wall arts. I also make jewelries. Recently I even tried some jewelries with resin. I make crochet caps and scarfs too.

I have a big and desperate desire to make use of these skills for God’s purpose. I have this deep desire to support some missionary work which proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who do not know Him. Everyday I pray earnestly for God to give me a greater purpose to be useful for His Kingdom. I have spent so much of my life running after worldly things and accomplishments which are meaningless. I want to spend the rest of my life doing a greater purpose so that I can store up my treasures in heaven. Mathew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Psalm 37:23 The steps of a good woman are ordered by the LORD and He delights in her way.

I have listed my handmade items in the Bonanza site. My desire is to send the profits of these sales to a sincerely done missionary work. As of now, I am very much touched by the missionary work by GEMS(Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (https://www.gemsbihar.org/index.php) in Bihar, India. Please visit my listed items in the below link. https://www.bonanza.com/booths/GracefulPainted

Kindly share your thoughts on the comment section.

May God bless you abundantly and may each of us be used mightily for His Kingdom purpose! To Him be all glory, power and honor! Amen!.

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