What Calling is Calling?

Last week I was concerned about realizing what talents could lead to potential callings. This week I felt very blessed to read the article "What Is Your Calling in Life?" by Jeffrey A. Thompson. He says that. "In fact, finding our calling in life involves the same process as discovering our spiritual gifts." This statement got me thinking about my patriarchal blessing, as everyone is told one of their "gifts" in their. As I considered that gift I felt that I too may very well fall into the category of talking/socializing as I was perplexed about in my last post. For this precise event Brother Thompson said, "As you consult your spiritual gifts, you may find that you don’t feel an urgent pull to practice medicine or educate children, for instance. Maybe instead you just like working with people. That is the most common thing I hear from students who are perplexed about what type of work they should do. If you think your spiritual gifts lie somewhere in that ambiguous area, I challenge you to delve much deeper into what your specific gifts are. How do you like working with people? Our strongest gifts tend to appear early in life, so it might help if you think back on your childhood and about how and what you played. " This was very helpful information and had me think back to my early childhood experiences with friends and peers. I was VERY shy and usually had only one good friend at any given time. I remember when I was in fifth grade I felt a desire to have more friends and began to use what I had learned from observing my peers for so many years(as many shy kids do), and implement those traits that people were drawn to. I was naturally good at reading and being aware of others feelings, and in response to those observations could create an environment that would help them be more comfortable. I was easy to get along with and peers who had a hard time fitting in else ware seemed drawn to my company. While never "popular" in the traditional sense I was able to go from having almost no friends to creating a friend network throughout many "clicks" or "groups" at my schools. From these pondering s I feel that my calling is coming into greater focus, although still not crystal clear. I want to use my ability to relate easily to others to help them somehow. I am excited to bring this vision into greater focus through my study at BYU-I!

After hearing the last lecture of Randy Pausch, he was able to accomplish his own childhood dream through persistence and belief in himself. His parents were supportive not only in his adult life but as a child they supported his creativity and dreams and let him paint on walls and truly express himself. These things contributed to his great success. As a child I wanted  to become a veterinarian, a love of animals and taking care of things led me to this. However as I grew I found many and varying areas that I was interested in and that has led me to where I am now. However I feel that if I had wanted to pursue my original goal, I would have been able to with the same support from my family like unto Pausch's.