Our Pastor has been teaching on the motivational gifts on Wednesday nights recently. He finished up last night with the gift of Mercy. I don’t get to hear the Wednesday night service because the choir is in rehearsal during that time so each week I have been asking Kris which gift he talked about and if it applied to me. Each week his answer to the latter question has been no. I am not a servant and I’m not an exhorter, I certainly don’t have the gift of prophesy. Kris’ gift is teaching and he fits it to a tee. Last night however, I was able to sit in on the service because the choir director is on vacation. Pastor Davis spoke on Mercy as I mentioned earlier and you guessed it…that’s my gift. I didn’t want the gift of mercy. I always think of it as the politically correct gift. It’s the emotional, touchy feely gift. It’s the gift that makes the rest of the gift’s roll their eyes. Yet…it is the one I most resemble. I want to be a strong and logical person, not a person who reacts to everything based on how it’s going to make people feel. The truth is that when I see someone made fun of, I hurt for that person…sometimes more than they hurt for themself. When someone is left-out…I feel it. When someone makes a mistake, I know exactly how deeply they are cringing at their own stupidity and I wish I could turn back the clock for them. Yes, I do my share of sarcasm and humor at someone else’s expense but I really try to be careful about who hears and who cares. I realized after seeing the notes from last night’s service, though I certainly fit best into the category of Mercy, I don’t fit it exactly. When it comes to disciplining Owen for example…I refuse to let him get away with things. Yes, it’s going to happen in his lifetime so don’t anyone call me on this in three years. The only absolute I’m making here is that of determination. I will not knowingly allow him to continue in actions that will one day hurt him or others. He will be taught.
Thursday at our Sewing party Owen started to climb the stairs which he is not supposed to do. I saw him and said, “Owen, get down.” He immediately reversed and sat on the floor. Someone commented that he knows what those words mean. I was glad that he obeyed but it struck me that he wasn’t really obeying the rule…he was obeying the command. I talked to Kris about it later and we decided that from now on we will not tell him to get down, we will punish him immediately. He has been warned plenty of times so it’s not as if we’re giving him no freedom. He needs to learn to obey the rule, not wait for a command to obey the rule. What if he runs into the street? Do we allow him to do that each day and only punish him the second time he does it? No…he needs to learn right away that the rule is to be followed upon instruction. I can do this, I have no problem with it, I don’t hesitate to punish him when I know it’s what is best…this is not a trait of a mercy person. However, I cannot stand to punish him and then leave him to cry. I have to pick him up within 2 minutes of his receiving punishment and make sure he is comforted. That’s when my mercy really kicks in.
My mercy is tempered, I hope, by logic…which brings me to my next little point. God changes everything. Yes, He gave me that gift, but even those who don’t believe in the Word of God have these gifts don’t they…that’s why we even have the term Politically Correct. There are a bunch of Mercy nuts running around trying to save the world by making sure that no one’s feelings are being hurt. It can’t be done.
When we understand our gift and then live by the fruit of the Spirit, which only comes through the indwelling of the Spirit, our gifts can be balanced by God. I read a verse this morning that really made me feel good. Psalm 59:11 says “Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.” Yes, He gave me the gift, but He still wants to be the God of that gift. He is perfect and with His guidance I will not be over-run or controlled by my own emotions or anyone elses.
Well, when I was sitting in the service I thought about you and thought “wow, she’s had a rough couple of days” (you know what I mean). It’s funny because I hadn’t thought much of the series before, but now I have about a million questions. It’s weird because I saw a lot of myself in the mercy gift and I wouldn’t have thought that before. I know other “mercy” people that have just seemed like (for lack of a better word) “suckers”, because they showed no discernment and just had mercy on everybody no matter what they’d done or what their motives were (would a mercy person say that?). But pastor said that mercy people do have a great deal of discernment. Anyway, now I want to get the whole series because I’d like to find out about the other gifts. It’s great to be a mercy person. People need mercy. Of course they also need a kick in the pants. Maybe I’m just one of those schizophrenically gifted people. Ha Ha!
AAAHHH!!! I just thought about what I said and I never meant that I thought you were a “sucker”. That actually never occured to me which is why I said it. You’ve always seemed balanced. I was just talking about people that I’ve met that walk around depressed all the time feeling everybody’s pain and giving everybody the benefit of the doubt. Geeez! My Travis side is sure coming out, isn’t it.
I agree with Amy, I never pegged you without-a-doubt as a mercy person. I don’t think I would have used the word sucker, but push-over or touchy-feely or someone lacking strength come to mind. You aren’t those things. So, I guess my impression is wrong. Another thing that’s wrong is that we’d all be ready to say that that is the less desirable gift because of the “politically correct” impression that we all have. They are gifts from GOD! How is it one could be better than the other? He needs them all to carry out His plans.
Well Tisra, that’s the funny thing. Pastor said that one of the traits of a mercy person is discernment which means that if they discern that a person has incorrect motives then the mercy person will avoid them. He said a lot of other interesting things as well. I think I’m going to buy the series and I’ll let you borrow it.
I had to laugh at you Amy…I didn’t take it wrong when you wrote the first comment but I see why you would correct it. I told Kris I want to buy the series too. Amber wants to hear it as well. I agree with you too Tisra, I was a little hard on the gift, but it was just to emphasize my feelings upon realizing that Mercy was my gift. I realize it takes all sorts of people to make the world go round and Mercy is not just a motivational gift, it’s one of God’s personal characteristics. We definitely need Mercy people.
I have thought a lot about the discernment characteristic and it explains a lot for me and some of my dissinterestedness in certain people.