The basis for our teaching on motivational gifts is found in the New Testament:

“Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according. to the proportion of his faith; [He whose gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching; [He who exhorts, encourages], to exhortation; he who contributes, let him do it in simplicity and liberality; he who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind; he who does acts of mercy, with genuine cheerfulness and joyful eagerness.”

 – Romans 12:6-8

We believe Peter referred to this category of gifts in 1 Peter 4:10, suggesting we should employ them to benefit one another, just as Paul says here we are to use them.
We possess these gifts! God built them into us to be used for His glory and for the benefit of others. They provide the basis for and help to shape our personalities and motivate our lives.
These are grace gifts. We do not deserve them. Because God has created us with free will we can choose to use them appropriately, neglect them, or even abuse them.
In order to cooperate with God’s will for our lives and to help our children do the same it is important to have some understanding of what the gifts are and how they function. Here are the seven keywords we have chosen to identify the gifts, and a brief definition of each.

The apostle Peter points out the universality of the motivational gifts:

“As each one has received a special gift, employ 1t in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” – 1 Peter 4:10, NAS

Everyone has a motivational gift! No one has been left out. We have tested tens of thousands of people and each has discovered his specific giftedness in one of the seven categories, or sometimes more than one. This is true of our children as well.

Our gifts were not afterthoughts, but part of God’s plan to equip us to accomplish His purposes for our lives.
One of the most beautiful Old Testament passages about our creation is found in the Psalms:

“You did form my inward parts, You did knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will confess and praise You, for You are fearfully wonderful, and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret and intricately and curiously wrought (as if embroidered with various colors) in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].
Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book, all the days of my life were written before ever they took shape when as yet there was none of them.”

-Psalm 139:13-16

What a magnificent expression of the design and development of the child in the womb!
God uses what scientists now call DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in the genetic process. When a child is conceived, half of his DNA inheritance comes from the father and half from the mother. And in that microscopic fertilized egg the joined DNA forms a helix-shaped genetic ladder more than six feet long. How incredible! 
Every detail of our physical being is programmed by DNA. Its intricacies outweigh the most sophisticated computer system on the market today. All our physical characteristics- our hair color, our nose shape, our height, our body frame, our complexion type—were determined by DNA at the moment of conception.
If God planned so precisely for the development of our physical bodies—which are eventually subject to degeneration and death—how much more would He plan for our giftedness! We believe we receive our motivational gifts at conception and, just as DNA produces our physical characteristics, so our motivational gifts produce interests, abilities, enthusiasms, and actions to make us effective members of the Body of Christ.