Yes, You Can

Verses:

1 Corinthians 12:5-6: …and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

1 Peter 4:10-11: As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Thoughts:

There are a series of phrases that seem to crop up somewhat often around me: “I could never do that,” or “I wish I could do that,” or “they are so talented.” Usually they are in correspondence to listening to an amazing instrumentalist or looking at an artist’s work.

I do understand those thoughts. And I know I’m young and spritely in my youth, and things may still be tinted with rose colored glasses. But, it peeves me when I hear that.

Here is a simple fact that I have said to myself and others many times: You can’t expect to be good at something if you never do it.

Put another way, you can’t be surprised that you are bad at something if you’ve never practiced it much. Those instrumentalists have put in hours of work to be as good as they are. So, if you really wanted to be able to do that, you would find the time to work hard at it.

(Tips for a good compliment: don’t tell the artist [dancer, painter, ext…], “That’s so cool, I could never do that.” Find something about their performance that made it uniquely good. If you could do what they did without practice, that’d mean it wasn’t very impressive. Saying you could never do that is just saying you just haven’t made time for it.)

We all have the same amount of hours in the day. We do all have different obligations (work, mom-ing, school); but, even 10 minutes of your time is enough to say "I've practiced it.”

I can hear them now, those little intrepid thoughts creeping in: “Some people are just more talented," “Art is a natural gift,” “I don’t have those skills,” or “I just can’t.”

Yes, certain people have a natural proclivity towards certain things. We do have God given talents. But, if I only ever did what I was talented at, first off, I’d probably not be doing anything at all because when trying to figure out what I might enjoy, I’m not going to be any good at it in the first place.

But, I want to rebel against the use of the phrases “I could never do that” or “I can’t.” If we tried hard enough, we could get pretty darn close.

We need to work on loving the process, and trusting the Lord with the result. If we want to do something because we think it’d be fun, then don’t worry about whether you are good at it yet or not. Being good at something comes with time. That’s why enjoying the process is so important. Because, let me be honest here, it’s never going to be perfect, and you are always going to be “in the process.”

In the end, it is trusting the Lord with the time, desires, and talents he has given to us, and using those to the best of our abilities. It's also being content with what the Lord has given to us. He has given us just enough time to accomplish exactly what He wants us to!

Summary: Don’t let phrases like “I can’t do that” wiggle into your brain. God has given us amazing bodies, and if we dedicate even a little time to working on whatever that skill might be (drawing, baking, playing the piano), I can guarantee you progress will be made. Think about it this way: that year is going to pass anyway (take 10 minutes everyday– that’s 3,650 minutes which = around 61 hours!). So just start now, making sure you are glorifying God with your time and passions!

Ask Yourself: How can I change my mind to be more positive about my abilities and stop those nasty little phrases? What is something I’d like to learn? Where can I spend 10 minutes on it in my day? 

#32

20 Mar 2026