Everybody seems to talk a lot about how they are weak and have no talents, and, unless they are extremely cocky and arrogant, they live in the shadows of their failures and weakness, so that  their successes and their strengths are never seen. That is probably because in today's culture, vanity is forbidden and we have done such a good job downgrading certain groups of people that you we usually end up just as downgraded. It’s a vicious cycle. Let’s begin with the bad and move on with the good.

I am a klutz. I cannot go a week without breaking, losing or forgetting something. I am often chastised for this and sometimes I take the chastisement to heart. That leads me on to my next weakness. I have a soft heart and therefore let myself be hurt when I am made fun of for any reason other than standing up for the Bible. I just don’t like being called many nasty names for associating with people who are deemed ‘unfit’ for society. I take everything seriously even if someone is joking, I take it seriously. If my dad jokes about say, my cooking, I’ll take it seriously even though he is joking and I know he likes it. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I am really weak on forming my own opinion. For example, when it comes to women's rights, I believe that women should be at home for the most part and the man, when he is able should be working. I am often times stumped, because I want to say my opinion, but I don’t want to come across as a misogynist. I usually don’t give up on things, but there are times when I can get discouraged easily. I get bogged down and just want to quit. My memory bank is probably five minutes when it comes to instructions and eternal when it comes to stuff like history and useless garbage like that. Ask Vlad, and he will tell you that I am constantly paranoid when I am away from my parents. What if I left a door open? What if I forgot to feed the cat? What if I didn’t make my bed? As the old song goes, ‘Paranoia, a self destroyer.’ (Destroyer, The Kinks) My paranoia is horrible at night. I have gone many sleepless nights worrying about something and being overly paranoid about it only to find that it never happened. I think that my greatest weakness is that I give into temptation to easily. If someone asks me to lie for them, I say yes. I don’t want to offend that person and I don’t want them to call me a coward though really I am the coward for not sticking up for what I believe and saying no to them.

Now to my strengths. Often times I get depressed and look at myself and look more at my weaknesses than strengths. I hate saying the good things about myself because I am so used to people telling me that I am worth nothing and that I will never succeed. So, the things that I am about to tell you is a little of what I know and a lot of what my friends and teachers tell me. I know that I like to write. I can write long volumes. That doesn’t mean I am any good though. It’s my friends and teachers that tell me that I am good. I am good at running; as if that takes any skill. My friends all say that I am really weird because I have high standards and try to do my best. I guess that tells me that I am good at being dedicated. The people whom I run with tell me that I am a dedicated runner. I used to not be. I used to not be able to run a mile without stopping. It is because I never gave up. I have a love for God, and I am always glad to spend time in his word. I can’t stand seeing people sitting alone and being made fun of. I used to sit alone and be made fun of and I always ended up sitting with the miss-fits. Don’t get me wrong, the people that I sit with are great. They are wonderful, but I sometimes wish that I could be taken seriously by the sports guys. They treat me like I am a second class citizen and like I’ve got a mental problem or something. I am funny. I can crack a clean joke and still make people laugh. It seems like all the jokes you hear these days are dirty jokes. It’s good to see that people can still laugh at a clean joke.

These are my strengths and weaknesses. I believe that God gave them to me to bring him honor. I may not be strong, but my love for people could become a ministry that I never thought of. I have one of two choices in life. I can either mope around all day, blame God for all my weaknesses and never see the good in my life, or I can use my gifts and talents to better the Kingdom of God.