Recently, I came upon a book by a pastor in Nashville Tennessee, What every man wishes his father had told him. I recommend it to you. There may be a few things in there that we may see a bit differently, but on the whole, it is a marvelous book. I might even say it is fun to read. The writing style of pastor Byron Yawn is very effective. With regard to this matter of the suitability of a vocation that fits us, and with the particular of that vocation corresponding to the gifts God has given us, I quote from page 60:
You can do anything you set your mind to, may be the most frequent bad advice parents give their children.That is exactly right! He writes,It is untrue, and it is misleading. I know parents are simply trying to encourage their kids, but you cannot actually do anything you set your mind to.And then parenthetically he says:Come play golf with me and I will prove it. God gives people different gifts and capacities. Some people are simply better at some things than others. In every single case a person’s make‑up limits his ability to succeed in certain things. The fact is, we are not good at everything. We cannot actually do everything we set our minds to. What we should be telling our kids is, you can try to do nearly anything, but you can succeed only in what you should be doing, and what you should be doing, is going to be to some measure indicated by the capacities God has endowed you with.Then he addresses fathers:
Our job is to guide them [that is our children, our sons] in the discovery of what they should pursue. Part of being a dad is helping your son discover his calling in life. Our aim should be to help our sons locate their capacity, not decide how or where they should apply it. We don’t decide what they are to do, but we are to help them understand what they should be doing. We have to pay close attention to the nuance of their personalities if we are going to do this. We have to be engaged if we’re going to help them discover their calling. Many young men choose not to succeed, simply because they have not discovered what they should be doing. A dad’s job is to set his son up for success by helping him discover what this is. And the way that dad does it, among others, is to point out to that son or that daughter, what God given aptitudes are evident in his or her life.Now, there are at least two related principles to this matter of one’s gifts. Look at Romans 12:6:
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them accordingly.The first related principles to this matter of endowment, is our responsibility to exercise the endowment. That is the lesson of the parable of the talents. God requires our active stewardship of what he has given. In the language of 1 Peter 4:10:As each one has received a gift, employ it, use it,exercise it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.Our vocation ought to be thus suitable to our gifts, in that our chosen line of work challenges our gifts, taxes our gifts, that we develop what God has imparted, and develop them as grateful, faithful stewards. The Christian is to choose a vocation which calls out, which summonses the exercise and practice of these particular gifts. They are not to be dormant and latent, but there to be exercised.1
George McDearmon
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;