Sharpening Your Gifts
For as long as I can remember, I have always had an obsession with knives or anything with a sharp edge. Growing up, if I was not outside playing with my throwing knives or running around with a camcorder, I was inside burning pieces of wood with my wood burner to give as gifts to friends and family. These were the games of my childhood that turned into the hobbies I enjoy today.
One day at my Aunt’s house, I took a hammer, painted it green and colored my name in white. I remember thinking to myself: “Hey, one day I can sell these!” Of course, that thought quickly faded and was buried. Like most kids, I was quickly on to the next big thing. Little did I know, that buried thought was really a seed in disguise.
You have to understand, burying and planting both require the same action, but yield very different results. If you aren’t careful, you will allow the dreams you used to have to be buried and gone. However, what if they aren’t buried? Maybe they are just planted! Since dead things don’t talk, maybe the “random” thoughts you keep thinking, about starting that business or calling that person, are really something more. Pay attention!
Later in life, the urge to create, which I thought I left in my childhood, started to resurface. So, I grabbed an old tomahawk/hatchet and wood burned a Celtic design into the handle. I put pictures of the tomahawk online and many people began to “like it.” That encouraged me to do more. I began ordering my steel and handles online and transitioned from wood burning the handles to carving them instead. A local from Texarkana saw one of these tomahawks and asked me if I would be interested in making them for our local soldiers. I won’t lie to you, I was scared to death, thinking what I had to offer wouldn’t be good enough to sell. So, I said no, which turned into a maybe, and eventually he talked me into it.
Before I knew it, my social media began to grow and my inbox started filling up with requests for wedding, anniversary, birthday and Christmas gifts. I have been so behind that I am just now catching up on all those orders!
Around the same time, I started posting wood carving tutorials on YouTube. I had already been on YouTube for years, but when I began teaching wood carving, my channel took off. On Dec. 24, 2020 I hit 100,000 subscribers. It was the best Christmas present ever!
I never intended for my hobby to turn into a business; it just did. Each tomahawk I carve takes many, many hours. My longest project took over 80 hours. Every tomahawk is custom built around the client’s needs and includes high sentimental value for the person or the family receiving it. The best part about what I do is seeing the reactions of people and hearing them tell me what it means to have it hanging in their home. That is priceless for me.
So far, I have approximately 100 custom tomahawks under my belt. It is great, but as much as I love carving, my hands need a break sometimes. My shop is a YouTube studio in a large living room. One side is full of tools and the other side is filled with computers and cameras! When I tire of carving, I transition to the other side of my room to edit videos.
Remember the green hammer I mentioned earlier? I found it last year, and it reminded of something important: don’t dismiss the natural desires you had in you as a child. They were put there for a reason. Look back at your childhood and you will see small glimpses of your gifts connecting the dots to what you feel called to do today.
Maybe your gift isn’t anything like mine. Maybe it is a gift of communication, or of loving people, or even the gift of listening. Whatever it is, find and develop it. The world needs it. The biggest lesson I’ve learned from everything I’ve done in the past few years is that it is ok to be unique. Embracing your uniqueness gives you permission to be YOU. Most people can’t accept who they are because they are living someone else’s idea of who they think they should be. I wrestled with that for a long time until I discovered that what I am doing involves me, but it’s not about me. It’s about other people. If I don’t show up and give 100%, I’m not only cheating myself, but I’m also mismanaging everything that God has given me. I’ll have to answer for that. Perhaps someone else’s blessings in life depend on my obedience to the assignments I’ve been given.
That is why I do what I do. 
