In my regular scripture study of the Book of Mormon in combination with my New Testament class, I’ve gained some valuable insight. I had been vaguely worrying about my finances and food as my semester had drawn closer to a close; when, in my New Testament class, we were speaking about food storage and how we worship a God that is all powerful and can refill a jug of food when emptied, as long as we have prepared and we are doing God’s will. In 3 Nephi 3, the Lord tells his disciples that life is more than what we should eat, drink or wear and that he’ll provide as long as we “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, . . .” (3 Nephi 13:33). So I began to consider what it is I can do to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Now I must mention how fantastic LDS.org and the internet is, as I had used it to search the terms “Building the Kingdom of God” resulting in lesson 10 of
Gospel Principles coming up with that exact title. Browsing the lesson, I discovered the following quote: “Our Heavenly Father has blessed each of us with time, talents, and possessions.” I then commenced in analyzing how I could best use my time, talents and possessions, but then I realized that I needed to know what my talents were in order to best utilize them.
Thus, I began to write down what my talents are. I could only come up with about ten before I was just rearranging the words or using a thesaurus. Luckily, I recalled advice from being a Young Woman inviting us to ask family, friends and leaders about the talents we have. As a result, I decided to E-mail my mom and ask her what she feels are talents of mine, because she’s observed me all my life and knows me better than I sometimes know myself. While waiting for a response, I realized that asking Heavenly Father to help me discover my talents would also be extremely beneficial. Even though my mother has known me all my life and can make very accurate observations, Heavenly Father knows all of who I am, inside and out. So ask God to help you become aware of what your talents are, it helps.
I then browsed LDS.org once again (it truly is a wonderful site), and I discovered an Ensign article entitled “Parables of Jesus: The Parable of the Talents” by Elder Ronald A. Rasband. He said, “The talents God has given us first become apparent in the interests we pursue. If you are wondering about your talents, make a list of the things you like to do. Include all the activities you enjoy from different dimensions of your life—spiritual, musical, dramatic, academic, athletic, and so on.” That put a new perspective on how I can help myself discover my talents. I do not only have to think about what I’m good at, but rather I can think about what I am interested in. Most likely I am talented in it to some degree.
When my mother responded, she reminded me that discovering my own talents is a lifelong process, but a few things I should ponder should be Doctrine and Covenants 46, in which the Gifts of the Spirits are covered and my Patriarchal Blessing. In reading D&C 46, I asked myself on each if I possessed that specific gift to some degree. It’s important to realize, however, that D&C 46 doesn’t cover all of the Gifts of the Spirit you can posses. Elder Marvin J. Ashton in the October 1987 General Conference gave a talk entitled “There Are Many Gifts” that I would recommend everyone read; he gives more examples on what else is a Gift of the Spirit such as:
“The gift of asking; the gift of listening; the gift of hearing and using a still, small voice; the gift of being able to weep; the gift of avoiding contention; the gift of being agreeable; the gift of avoiding vain repetition; the gift of seeking that which is righteous; the gift of not passing judgment; the gift of looking to God for guidance; the gift of being a disciple; the gift of caring for others; the gift of being able to ponder; the gift of offering prayer; the gift of bearing a mighty testimony; and the gift of receiving the Holy Ghost.”
Elder Ashton had opened his talk by saying, “One of the great tragedies of life, it seems to me, is when a person classifies himself as someone who has no talents or gifts.” We all have gifts. Even if you can only come up with ten on your own, you have more than ten. Ask your friends, your family and your Father in Heaven. Sometimes they know you better than you know yourself. I know that is very true in my case.
As a blessing and miracle, the following Sunday, the parables in Matthew 25 were studied in Sunday School. I’m sure you know the Parable of the Talents, but here is a quick review:
There was a man who was traveling into a far country and called his servants, delivering unto them his goods. Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. The first doubled his to ten. The second doubled his to four. The last was afraid and buried his in the ground. When the lord returned, he told the first two, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter into the joy of thy lord.” But unto the last he said, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, . . . Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.” The lord then took the talent from this last servant and gave it unto him which had ten. (Matt 25:14-30).
I had understood the meaning behind this parable most of my life. I had understood that we were supposed to develop the talents we have and share them with others. But, I did not understand why the third servant got into as much trouble as he did in the story. If you did not know, Talents were a sort of money for them. Applying that into my life, I saw myself as the third servant with my actual finances; keeping it and being an extremely conservative investor. I didn’t understand why the third servant would have gotten into so much trouble for not wanting to lose the Talent. However, I realized something vital to the parable. The lord in the story is our Lord, Jesus Christ. We have to have faith that when we invest the things he’s given us, and we invest it for righteous purposes, we
cannot lose it. The parable isn’t just about the Talents and investing them; it’s also about having faith in the Lord and doing His Will. This insight gave me a little extra comfort. I can’t go wrong when I am investing my talents for the Lord.
After another week studying the topic of Talents, the Relief Society lesson the following Sunday was entitled “Developing Our Talents.” Within the lesson it mentioned six steps to develop our talents:
- We must discover our talents.
- We must be willing to spend the time and effort to develop the talent we are seeking.
- We must have faith that our Heavenly Father will help us, and we must have faith in ourselves.
- We must learn the skills necessary for us to develop our talents. We might do this by taking a class, asking a friend to teach us, or reading a book.
- We must practice using our talent. Every talent takes effort and work to develop. The mastery of a talent must be earned.
- We must share our talent with others. It is by our using our talents that they grow (see Matthew 25:29).
We’ve already briefly covered how we can best discover our talents, but I’d like to mention something more. In the process of discovering my talents, I’ve also discovered what talents I don’t have. For example, I’m interested in gardening. But am I blessed with that talent? If I have been it must be an extremely small amount of talent in that area because I pretty much massacre every plant in any garden I attempt. However, that is a failing on my part as I should dedicate more time and effort in developing and strengthening this talent if I really desire it. I should definitely ask Heavenly Father for help because there is no possible way I would remember to water the garden every day on my own. But I have to have faith that I can do it, even when I am asking for help.
In his book
Standing for Something, President Gordon B. Hinckley stated:
It is not enough just to live, just to survive. It is incumbent on each of us to equip ourselves to do something worthwhile in society—to acquire more and more light, so that our personal light can help illuminate a darkened world. And this is made possible through learning, through educating ourselves, through progressing and growing in both mind and spirit. [Gordon B. Hinckley, Standing for Something (New York: Times Books, 2000), 67]
It usually takes the study of skills and the asking of a friend to teach us as well as the strengthening of ourselves and our commitment in order to develop a talent. Thusly, I should also hop over to the library and check out simple books on gardening as well as ask my brother who is a master in it. I should also practice using the talent. Just because the garden has died every time I’ve tried it doesn’t mean that I should give up. Just put it down as a practice trial. Now I know what not to do next time. The mastery of a talent must be earned.
Finally, when I’ve developed this talent to where I receive actual produce from it I can share the fruit of my labors with others, literally and figuratively. I can give of tomatoes and carrots to others, but I can also share the wisdom and knowledge about gardening that I would have acquired from the developing of my talent.
In Doctrine and Covenant 82:18 it reads:
“And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—”
We are asked and commanded to improve our talents, to develop them and strengthen them and share them with others, so that we can all multiply our talents. In Doctrine and Covenants 60:13 we’ve been commanded, “Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known.” So use and share your talents! Can you imagine what we could do with the storehouse of talents? If we know someone who has a talent of creating clothes, we can ask them to teach us so we can create modest and stylish clothing. If we know someone who has a talent with computers, we can ask them to share their talent and help us with our computer problems or our projects. If we know someone who has a talent for taking pictures, we can ask them to help us build a photo album of our family in different activities or a photo album of the ward. If we know someone with a talent of fixing cars, we can ask them for an opinion. If we know someone who has a talent for woodwork, we can ask them for advice in how we should furnish our homes.
In the process of discovering and developing my talents, I should utilize them to help build the kingdom of God. We are each individually blessed in a special way. We can help build the part of the world where we are into part of the kingdom of God. We can do it in small or large ways. We can help strengthen our families, our neighbors, our wards, our communities, our cities, our counties, our states, our nations, our world.
Douglas M. Chabries, during a devotional given at BYU on May 17, 2005 entitled “Talents”, shared a quote from Gordon B. Hinckley that’s in a booklet entitled
Motherhood: A Heritiage of Faith:
“I . . . invite [you] to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass.” [Gordon B. Hinckley, Motherhood: A Heritage of Faith, booklet (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995), 9; see also TGBH, 696]
We each can be so very influential in our different spheres of life. We each have the ability to build the kingdom of God where ever we may be using whichever talents we may have. We don’t have to have the most amazing talent ever. We don’t even have to be the best at a certain talent. We just need to do the best we can, with the talent we’ve been blessed with.
Douglas M. Chabries also invited each of us during his devotional address:
To study and prepare your minds and then make a commitment to develop your talents and provide a significant contribution to the world. Look around and you will find the examples of many others who have made such a contribution. This university is filled with such people. Talk to them. Find out what motivated and inspired them. Then choose a pursuit that will bless mankind, your friends, and your family. Much is expected of you. Matthew 25:29 reads, “For unto every one that hath [other talents] shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not [obtained other talents] shall be taken away even that which he hath.”
We each have something that we can share, that we can do, to contribute to the building of the kingdom of God. Discover throughout your life what talents you’ve been given. Develop the talents you have and the ones you desire. Use them to the very best of your ability in the best way you can. I have a testimony from my own experiences that you will be happy, feel more confidant, and become closer to God.
I say these things, in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
