Declare Your Design

I ran across this paragraph on a website today while doing a search on Spiritual Gifts for someone at work:

Declare Your Design: "Please check your Spiritual Gift boxes and press submit. Spiritual Gifts are your gifts from God given in celebration of your acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. The Bible describes the gifts, and as you serve, you will begin to see your gifting emerge. These are not natural talents or passions. These are additional gifts only Christians possess. To help you see where your gifts may be you can use man-made spiritual gifting tests that are available on the internet. "

The line that I have a really hard time with is, "These are additional gifts only Christians possess." As if one day after submitting my life to Christ, I wake up and suddenly have the gift of mercy. I didn't have it last week, because I wasn't a Christian then (hypothetically speaking), but today I am able to show great compassion and mercy because now I am gifted. Maybe this is not completely what they are trying to say, but that's the conclusion that I drew. I do think that as God's creation, we bear His image. We have been fashioned with certain traits and qualities that reflect the heart of God, and these traits and qualities are prominent in Christians and non-Christians alike. I think people are gifted in the area of administration, giving, teaching, mercy, the prophetic, etc. before they ever come to know Christ because they bear the image of their Creator. These giftings are used for the utmost good when we submit ourselves to God, and potentially for destruction or harm by those not submitted to Him, but to deny their existence in a life just because a person may not be a follower of Jesus is a little arrogant. This is my opinion, please feel free to disagree.