Jill, you wrote:kids are so much fun and i agree with mlg and i do think His plans for us change as we grow.
A boy might not be able to know what he needs to do with his life. He might see a fireman with a great red fire truck making its so-exciting siren noise, and . . . boy would I love to have a giant toy like that; so I'm going to be a fireman when I grow up.
But then he grows and discovers women, perhaps.
If he's lucky, he will discover love. But this would come with being brought up by people who know how to relate in love. And then he would have very different and better interests.
Like this, we need to grow in God's love, in order to really find out what He has for us. Our *gifts* may be good and perfect (James 1:17), but as younger Christians we are not exactly so perfect. But our gifts make us able to do things needed in the church . . . while we grow in God's love which has *all* His gifts and capability, more and more shared with us as we keep growing "up in all things into Him who is the head---Christ---" (in Ephesians 4:15).