Paying Attention to Gifts

There's an idea that's been floating around among Quakers I know, which is often referred to as "naming a person's gifts".

For whatever reason, I find myself always suspicious of "quakerspeak" - where quakers use a special Quaker term for something when an ordinary word or phrase would do. I guess I like to speak plainly. I find it useful to translate in my head between this phrase, "naming a person's gifts", to something like "paying attention to a person's gifts". I think "gifts" is a bit of a strange word in this context, but here I think it's actually very useful to notice the connection between gifts as in "giving presents" and "this person is gifted / talented".

I received a gift from one friend when he mentioned that focusing on results is often not a good way to become closer to God. More than once, when I was focused on a good idea, this friend's gift to me has been to see the other side of a situation, the side that I had not paid attention to and that was important to understand before moving forward. I am thankful for his ability to share good ideas.

I received a gift from another friend when she welcomed me to Philadelphia by giving me, as a young person who had never had an office job, the chance to get some office experience as an intern with her organization. Finding somewhere for a person to help out, and giving them a chance to "learn by doing" and in turn give something back, is definitely a gift. I am grateful that I got the chance to spend four months doing this internship at the American Friends Service Committee.