Grapefruit Sorbet

I was minding my own business waiting at the deli counter for my lunch meat. A mom next to me had two small children with her. They were getting a little antsy waiting so the mom said to her daughter, “Honey, go over to the refrigerated section and get me some grapefruit juice and we’ll make grapefruit sorbet when we get home.” Grapefruit sorbet? On a good day, I might have let my kids put some Kool-Aid in ice cube trays but never something so healthy and glamorous sounding. For a brief second the thought went through my mind, that maybe I had short changed my kids. Maybe I didn’t do all I could have done.

Now mind you, my children are twenty-six, twenty-three, and eighteen, living productive lives in spite of the fact that they never made grapefruit sorbet with me. Then I actually was feeling angry at this mom. What’s the point of grapefruit sorbet anyway? Isn’t a Popsicle good enough?

Hmm…

Isn’t it funny how easily we can let others make us feel inadequate or less gifted? God says we are all one body with many parts. And we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

All of us have been perfectly gifted, by God. Whether our gift comes wrapped in grapefruit sorbet or Kool-Aid ice cubes, it’s perfect and pleasing to Him.

Scripture Verses:

Romans 12:4-6a
For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly.

1 Corinthians 12:14-20
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now here are many members, but one body.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you feel God has gifted you?
2. What is one of your gifts? How have you used it or how could you use this gift?
3. Do you ever let someone else’s gift diminish yours?
4. Do you ever feel jealous of other people’s gifts?

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