(no subject)
Mar. 20th, 2010 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaIt's stewardship season at church. This year they're doing something called "Appreciative Inquiry," which turns out to be a management consulting thing. Visiting stewards are making face-to-face calls on everyone in the congregation, but instead of talking about our upcoming pledges they're asking questions like "Tell me about a time the church was important in your life," and "What makes you fabulous? What are your gifts?"
Our visiting steward came over last night. We talked, at length, about Michael's considerable gifts and all that he can offer the church. Then it was my turn. "What makes you fabulous?"
"Um... I'm pretty good with the kids. I feel like I've done good things with Religious Education." It sounded lame and useless to my ears, and a long way from fabulous.
I feel so colorless and tired these days. Like my kids have sucked most of the energy out of my life and I'm not even doing that great a job with them. Except that I can't really blame it on them, because look at all the things that people like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chargirlgenius and telerib accomplish on top of each having two kids and a full-time job. It's not the kids, it's me.
What do I do? What do I contribute? What can I offer? What are my gifts? Why don't any of these questions even make sense to me right now?
Our visiting steward came over last night. We talked, at length, about Michael's considerable gifts and all that he can offer the church. Then it was my turn. "What makes you fabulous?"
"Um... I'm pretty good with the kids. I feel like I've done good things with Religious Education." It sounded lame and useless to my ears, and a long way from fabulous.
I feel so colorless and tired these days. Like my kids have sucked most of the energy out of my life and I'm not even doing that great a job with them. Except that I can't really blame it on them, because look at all the things that people like
chargirlgenius and telerib accomplish on top of each having two kids and a full-time job. It's not the kids, it's me.What do I do? What do I contribute? What can I offer? What are my gifts? Why don't any of these questions even make sense to me right now?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 03:43 pm (UTC)*hug*
You are awesome. Objectively. Anyone who knows you could do a kick-ass powerpoint presentation on the ways in which you excel in every aspect of your life [which, though it sounds like hyperbole is, frankly, not.]
I can —literally— count on one hand the number of individuals in the church who do as much for RE as you do (and that's not just this year, but every year) I hope Michael was able to chime in about OWL and teaching RE and the Christmas Pageant (which you singlehandedly made into an invaluable tradition, by the way) Oh, and OWL, and OWL, and OWL. And that's not counting committee work, behind the scenes stuff, financial stewardship and the simple but still astounding fact that y'all are just THERE every week, modeling what it means to be part of the community.
But I know it's not really about the accomplishments, it's about being able to feel like you contribute and when you are depressed there's nothing in the world that can make you FEEL it. Between the now of feeling numb and the future of remembering you are awesome, I hope you can hold on with both hands and just let your friends and family carry you though. We remember how great you are, even when you forget.