‘Show me the right path, O Lord ; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.’ Psalms 25:4-5(NLT)
‘In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.’ Romans 12:6-8(NLT)
What are your step children’s spiritual gifts?
You may be saying, “I have no clue. I could probably get to figuring that out if I could focus on something besides all the chaos surrounding them.” I get it, but you have to take a step back and see why the enemy is creating all the confusion. I have learned that often it is to keep you distracted and out of the will of God in your step-parenting assignment.
Here is the thing: you have a responsibility to help identify and cultivate your step children’s spiritual gifts. I know it seems minor but it is essential that while everyone else is fighting for the affections of their heart, you are petitioning God on behalf of their spirit and soul. It is in knowing what gift needs to be birthed, that you will better understand the adversity that seems to invade your home through them.
Remember, God has a plan for their lives but the enemy does too.
This became clear to me after walking through a difficult season with my stepdaughter. To put it mildly, she had mastered the art of backbiting and one day, I’d had enough of being the target. After an incident in which it became clear she saw no error in this behavior, I decided to expose that spirit and when I did, it began to lose power.
Shortly after this incident, I noticed she had decided to go a different path with her college career. Since I had known her, she always wanted to be a nurse, but after she and I had a heart-to-heart about life, future plans, and what she enjoyed, her career direction changed to wanting to be a counselor. She explained that the reason was because she loved to encourage and talk to people.
That’s when it clicked—she had the gift of encouragement. She often did this through words and deeds. I began to put two and two together.
Before our conversation, the enemy was cultivating the counterfeit gift of backbiting. After I decided to walk in my assignment as a stepmother and exposed the counterfeit, the true gift was able to come forth. It corrected the negative behavior and gave her clarity of assignment. She was now walking in her gift.
Here is the thing: we have been called to cultivate our step children’s spiritual gifts through prayer, petition, conversation, and awareness. So, let’s learn to spend less time entertaining the counterfeit and more time cultivating the gift.
from But I’m ONLY The Stepmom!