We have all had the experience of being overlooked when being picked for teams as kids. We all know that feeling of comparing ourselves to others and wondering if we are enough. In today's episode I share some rock solid encouragement about the fact that God never misses anyone when it comes to passing out gifts. You were handpicked and chosen and the best is ahead.

Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.

Once again, welcome back to the Catholic teacher daily podcast, a

little bit of encouragement and support.

For all the fantastic Catholic teachers out there around the world.

Think about how many of us there must really be across this great big planet.

I know late on a Friday afternoon when you're tired and you're dealing

with a difficult class or a difficult situation, it's very easy to feel like

you are the only Catholic teacher.

Left on planet earth fighting the good fight, but be encouraged.

There are so many.

Great Catholic teachers just like you out there today.

Really seeking to make a difference in the lives of young people,

really seeking to participate.

In the graces of the faith and partly I'm really cooperating

with what God is trying to do.

In human history, continuing to do.

And today I want to share something with you.

That's very encouraging.

Uh, got up early, as usual came in the studio.

I looked at the, uh, pray the divine office and the readings today.

A really beautiful as a.

A beautiful line here from one Peter four that I wanted to share with you.

You've heard it before, but like so many scriptures.

Uh, the longer you go on the Catholic journey, some of these, uh, scriptures

can just become, uh, so I guess we get so used to them that we lose some

of their incredible power and input.

So.

Let me share this with you.

It says this each one of you has received a special grace.

So like good stewards, responsible for all these different graces of God.

Put yourself at the service of others.

And then you probably just listened to that.

And then, yeah, I've heard that before, but one more time, listen, very carefully.

Each one of you.

Has received a special grace, so like good stewards, responsible for

all these different graces of God, put yourselves at the service of.

Others, like so much of scripture, there is so much packed into a very short space.

Couple of key things here.

First pub, each one of you, it begins with each one of you.

There are no exceptions.

There was no Catholic teacher.

According to this scripture who has not received what a special grace

or unique grace, a particular grace.

So definitions, what is, what is grace?

Well, I guess theologically grace is what we would refer to

as the unmerited love of God.

That's the grace of God.

The fact that he, he loved us first while we were still

in sin, he reached out to us.

So grace.

In its purest sense is the unmerited action and love of God,

which we are so grateful for.

But also grace is basically.

Uh, human ability, talent gift.

That participates in the way that God is acting in the world.

So each one of us has received something unique.

And what is that something?

Well, of course, for each one of us, it's going to be exactly that unique.

Some of us will be great at speaking.

Some of us will be great at pastoral care.

Some of us will be great encourages.

Every one of you listening to this right now.

Has to come to the realization that you do in fact, have these unique graces.

And then the scripture takes us further here.

It says that we have to be like stewards.

He doesn't just give us this grace.

Kind of, you know, just for our own amusement.

He doesn't give us this.

Grace just randomly.

He gives us his grace for a purpose.

He wants us to be stewards of these different graces.

You know, I have, um, I have a friend who runs a vineyard.

And I think about what it means to be a steward, to be entrusted

with our parcel of land.

And then to be entrusted with all of the elements that go together, all the

history and the skill and the knowledge.

And all these elements get combined together to create

something quite remarkable.

That's kind of what it means to be a steward of something.

And I look at our own lives as Catholic educators, and we are to be stewards.

These graces that he's given us.

We have to be responsible for them in what, and.

Yeah, the scripture tells us directly in what kind of way should we be responsible?

Well, we're responsible for placing them at the service of other people.

So the graces that God gives us.

Have a, what we would call a technological aim there basically.

They're given to us individually.

But the purpose then is to place them at the service of others at the

kingdom of God, at the healing of minds and hearts at the, uh, increase

of knowledge in our young people, in their growth, in the image of Christ.

So, you know, think about when you're happiest in life.

I keep telling people this, that 90% of the time.

You are happiest.

When you are serving other people.

And I shared in another podcast recently, I had.

A weekend, a few weeks back where I was pretty tired.

I'd been doing a lot, but I ended up the entire day doing nothing

other than running my kids around, going to every sporting event, doing

this stuff at the end of the day.

For this deep satisfaction.

Like, and I suddenly realized that the focus of my day had been around

nothing other than other people.

Now, of course, there's a toxic element to that.

I mean, not that specific example, but if we go too far with this, we can just build

our lives around people pleasing and.

You know, wiping ourselves out for others.

That's not what I'm saying.

I think you can understand that it's simply about that these gifts and

talents bring us the greatest joy when they're at the service of something else.

And that's why the Catholic teaching vocation is so important because

that is what you are doing each day.

You are taking these unique talents and abilities and placing them at the service

of something greater than yourself.

And of course, this is why prayer and sacraments are so important because

they lift up our natural abilities.

And they are, they, uh, energized them and, and, and Edify them and fill them

and place them at the service of others.

So I think that's what I wanted to cover, just to be encouraged that, uh,

You didn't get missed, you know, when we were kids, uh, when we were in

elementary school, primary school, And some of us were last peaked.

You know, we sort of pick them teams were getting picked and we got missed out.

We've all had that experience at some point.

Well, the good news is that when these gifts were getting handed

out, you didn't get missed.

You did not get missed.

You, uh, you actually were chosen.

And God knew specifically what he wanted to give you.

How good is that?

How good is that?

You know, the T there's times when I've done, you know, keynotes for

up to 10,000 people at a time.

And people are like, oh, you know, it was amazing.

And this, this, this, and I'm going cool.

I'm stoked.

I'm really happy to be there.

Love it.

It's a great joy.

But I've always understood that that's just a particular grace.

And I always used to say on stage to people that there is no difference

between someone being on stage or someone being the Pope or someone

being, you know, a third grade elementary teacher, primary teacher.

Because there's, there's no difference there.

It looks different to us, but in God's eyes, each person is just using their

particular grace at the service of others.

All right, that's it for today.

I hope that's useful.

Please make sure you've subscribed.

Uh, you can support me on Patrion.

If you'd like to discover to patrion.com and do a search for

Jonathan Doyle, you'll find me there.

I'd love your support there at Patrion.

And, um, everything else is on the website.

One Catholic teacher.com.

God bless you everybody.

Thanks for what you're doing every single day my name's jonathan doyle this has been

the catholic teacher daily podcast and i'll have another message for you tomorrow