Ephesians 4:11
11 He is the One who gave some the gift to be apostles. He gave some the gift to be prophets. He gave some the gift of preaching the good news. And he gave some the gift to be pastors and teachers.
Whenever I read this verse, I look for myself in there ....which one of these gifts do I have. Every time I leave the verse ... disappointed. I feel like the little drummer boy who sang 'I have no gifts to bring... pa ra pa pum pum'
Suresh clearly has the gift of teaching in addition to others that come and go. He is an amazing teacher whether the bible or any other subject. The most important thing is he never puts you down when he is teaching. I call that a sign of a good teacher. Encouraging.
Then one day it clicked me ... what has god gifted me with .... I have the gift of ... Haggling! Yes.
Why do I say this. Well a couple of incidents to back my gift.
When we arrived back in India, I had clearly lost my skill for haggling. Any market I went to I just paid what they asked from me. So much so that once a vendor sold me a kilo of Taro (cheppankizhangu) for Rs. 40. I did feel a little cheated and my suspicions were confirmed when Suresh, the cook and the maid all yelled at me for not haggling. The next time I went to the market I looked at the fish asked the prices and directly reduced Rs. 200. I ended up getting it for the price I asked for and left a very annoyed fish vendor. I got him to smile when I said ... 'Arre ... at least smile when you take the money!' He did smile ... but now whenever he see me pull up I think he doubles his price.
Another story. We were searching for a water softener since the water at our place was causing my hair to fall. I called a couple of vendors and realised that the price was nowhere close to fixed. So I called two vendors home for a demo/site visit. I suited myself up in my 'haggling gear'. The first guy came and went and gave a quote. Then the next vendor came and the demo was the same old ... a couple brochures and showing me how 'hard' my water was etc etc. I was standing outside the house showing them the water tank and my cousin was walking around listening. Their demo was almost done when I pulled in the dialogue ' Well vendor X is giving me this price ... call you beat it ... there is no difference in your products'. My cousin had this look of disbelief on his face and then a slow grin that almost gave up the whole situation as I put on the look of 'I am dead serious'. As the vendor left ... my cousin said ' Good one Kuttu chechi!' The next four to five days were spent with phone calls where I kept getting the price reduced till one of them finally backed out!
Another story: We needed a few closets put in. So we looked around for a carpenter. Since we had already had one guy come put up a few things for us, we called him and showed him what we needed done. He said 'This plank ... that plank ... the other one ... Rs 5000' My cook who was listening to the entire conversations yelped 'Rs 5000 ama ... ama'. The carpenter then took us to show some sample pieces of work he had done in another house. When I got the silent eye look from Suresh that this was the person who would do our work ... I started the haggling process. He quoted the price ... I reduced it by Rs 20000 without a calculation ... he did some calculation and quoted another price ... I increased Rs 5000 and got him to agree to to put up our curtain rods and picture frames as well. When we reached back home, the cook called Suresh and said 'Please dont mind me advising you and your wife ... but when these guys come to work for your and quote a price, please ask for less' Suresh smirked 'Amma you dont have to tell my wife that ... she is the queen at that art'
There are several other stories .... but I wont bore you more. I think you got the point right. But to close up listen to this one conversation between Suresh and me.
We were planning on buying a car. Suresh and I test drove a few and we were talking about accessories etc. I finally was not sure what I was talking about when it came to alloy wheels and other crazy stuff. So I told Suresh ' Please dont just agree to any price they quote ... please bargain a bit' Suresh's response 'Why dont we got to the showroom. I will point at the car I like and you get it for the best price' he winked!
11 He is the One who gave some the gift to be apostles. He gave some the gift to be prophets. He gave some the gift of preaching the good news. And he gave some the gift to be pastors and teachers.
Whenever I read this verse, I look for myself in there ....which one of these gifts do I have. Every time I leave the verse ... disappointed. I feel like the little drummer boy who sang 'I have no gifts to bring... pa ra pa pum pum'
Suresh clearly has the gift of teaching in addition to others that come and go. He is an amazing teacher whether the bible or any other subject. The most important thing is he never puts you down when he is teaching. I call that a sign of a good teacher. Encouraging.
Then one day it clicked me ... what has god gifted me with .... I have the gift of ... Haggling! Yes.
Why do I say this. Well a couple of incidents to back my gift.
When we arrived back in India, I had clearly lost my skill for haggling. Any market I went to I just paid what they asked from me. So much so that once a vendor sold me a kilo of Taro (cheppankizhangu) for Rs. 40. I did feel a little cheated and my suspicions were confirmed when Suresh, the cook and the maid all yelled at me for not haggling. The next time I went to the market I looked at the fish asked the prices and directly reduced Rs. 200. I ended up getting it for the price I asked for and left a very annoyed fish vendor. I got him to smile when I said ... 'Arre ... at least smile when you take the money!' He did smile ... but now whenever he see me pull up I think he doubles his price.
Another story. We were searching for a water softener since the water at our place was causing my hair to fall. I called a couple of vendors and realised that the price was nowhere close to fixed. So I called two vendors home for a demo/site visit. I suited myself up in my 'haggling gear'. The first guy came and went and gave a quote. Then the next vendor came and the demo was the same old ... a couple brochures and showing me how 'hard' my water was etc etc. I was standing outside the house showing them the water tank and my cousin was walking around listening. Their demo was almost done when I pulled in the dialogue ' Well vendor X is giving me this price ... call you beat it ... there is no difference in your products'. My cousin had this look of disbelief on his face and then a slow grin that almost gave up the whole situation as I put on the look of 'I am dead serious'. As the vendor left ... my cousin said ' Good one Kuttu chechi!' The next four to five days were spent with phone calls where I kept getting the price reduced till one of them finally backed out!
Another story: We needed a few closets put in. So we looked around for a carpenter. Since we had already had one guy come put up a few things for us, we called him and showed him what we needed done. He said 'This plank ... that plank ... the other one ... Rs 5000' My cook who was listening to the entire conversations yelped 'Rs 5000 ama ... ama'. The carpenter then took us to show some sample pieces of work he had done in another house. When I got the silent eye look from Suresh that this was the person who would do our work ... I started the haggling process. He quoted the price ... I reduced it by Rs 20000 without a calculation ... he did some calculation and quoted another price ... I increased Rs 5000 and got him to agree to to put up our curtain rods and picture frames as well. When we reached back home, the cook called Suresh and said 'Please dont mind me advising you and your wife ... but when these guys come to work for your and quote a price, please ask for less' Suresh smirked 'Amma you dont have to tell my wife that ... she is the queen at that art'
There are several other stories .... but I wont bore you more. I think you got the point right. But to close up listen to this one conversation between Suresh and me.
We were planning on buying a car. Suresh and I test drove a few and we were talking about accessories etc. I finally was not sure what I was talking about when it came to alloy wheels and other crazy stuff. So I told Suresh ' Please dont just agree to any price they quote ... please bargain a bit' Suresh's response 'Why dont we got to the showroom. I will point at the car I like and you get it for the best price' he winked!
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