I spent my summer self-employed, free from the 9-5 routine, and fully immersed in watering the many seeds God had been sprinkling – in front of my very eyes – over the past few years. 

One of my favorite things about this time was the renewed sense of self I developed that brought to the forefront so many of past descriptors that are now taking center stage. 

Among those descriptors lied my spiritual gifts.

Now when I first discovered my spiritual gifts, I agreed with almost all of them.

Gift of administration, check. (Yes!)

Gift of hospitality, double check. (Duh?)

Gift of exhortation…(Hmmm…sure…what does that even mean?)

Sounded too big.

Sounded too complicated. 

Sounded too spiritual. 

Too much. 

So I never led with it. I led with what I knew.

I went after roles that fit with the gifts I knew.

I was proud to share the gifts I could easily explain.

Hospitality and administration. 

Those were always my go-tos.

I ignored exhortation completely. 

Oh, but this summer – in the middle of that renewed sense of self was a specific attention paid to the words that have always described me.

Like my name, which I talked about in this post.

And now my gifts, which were requested on three separate applications in the span of a month.

And that led me to finally unearth what the heck this word ‘exhortation’ meant.

Okay, are you ready for a bit of a vocabulary lesson?

‘Exhortation,’ which is usually interpreted as pure `advising.’ (If you read the name post above, you’ll know where my chuckle comes from)

French roots for the word exhort mean “thoroughly encourage,” so to exhort is to fill up with encouragement!

Within the word encouragement, we see the word ‘courage’ which is the ability to face danger and deal with it.

So, to ‘encourage’ is to help develop that ability in someone. Or as I like to say, to spur them on IN COURAGE.

But this is my favorite part – 

“Courage” and “encourage” are related words stemming from the French word encoragier. 

En- “to make or put in”, and

coeur- which means heart.

So the entire premise of the word encourage is to instill confidence, boldness and heart.

And the entire premise of the word exhortation is to thoroughly encourage.

WHAAAAAAT?!??!?!?!

How did I ignore this gift for this long?

This word I chose not to decipher all those years ago is now one I’m building much of my life upon. Here I was, walking around with this feeling on the inside – this passion – this calling – having zero idea that God had wired me with the exact gifting to align with said feeling. 

With a heart to exhort women and give them the permission to explore all facets of who they are, growing the confidence to step out and fully take up their space in this world. A heart to give them an unbiased, warm, welcome space to fully be themselves and to discover who they truly are. A heart to cultivate confidence and communication that will help them understand and stand firmly in that identity, no matter what life looks like around them. A chance to finally own their story. Discover their identity. Honor their flaws. Channel their gifts. Because it took someone utilizing their gift of exhortation to speak into me – and once they did, I began dreaming again, acknowledging my passions, and seeing my thoughts and ideas as little seeds that were falling from God’s hand into my life’s garden. I began to fully take up a space designed only for me. And now, my heart desires the same for others.

I’m proud to say I have the gift of exhortation.

It will now, and forever, be one I lead with.

My go-to.

And maybe, just maybe, it was meant to be discovered, embraced, developed, and put into practice right now…right in this very season.