“Talent without character is more to be dreaded than esteemed.” -Richard L. Evans
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I've been thinking a lot about the importance of talents. Everyone is given different talents. However, as the quote above illustrates, a talent is worthless unless it is used for something good.
Sometimes talents are naturally evident, sometimes they are harder to find. Talents sometimes are things that we hardly recognize as talents. It took me a while to realize that loving people, caring for children, being a peace-maker, teaching others, and other qualities can all be talents.
A woman told about how she found talents that she never knew she had:
"Suddenly my insight came. I can act on the desires and interests that I have and thereby reveal and use my talents in small ways."
Finding and developing talents can be hard work. However the Lord often sends people to help us recognize our talents. He also will give us opportunities to discover new talents through assignments and callings.
I really liked the following quote:
“Improving one talent often helps us develop other talents.”
Sometimes when developing a new talent it can be so difficult that it may seem like we don't have a talent for it at all. The thing is, sometimes things that are difficult at first will eventually become our greatest strengths. In the parable of the talents in the New Testament all the men were given different talents, some were given more and others less. However, the expectations were the same:
“More was expected from the man given many talents than from the man with fewer talents, yet all were expected to increase the talents they were given.”
So, when it comes to developing talents we aren't supposed to be satisfied with what comes naturally or easily. The hard work will pay off:
“President Grant himself was fond of saying, “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1901, 63).”
Remember the promise that the Lord made to those faithful men who increased their talents in his parable:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21)
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All of the quotes came from these two articles:
- DUTIES AND BLESSINGS OF THE PRIESTHOOD: BASIC MANUAL FOR PRIESTHOOD HOLDERS, PART B, LESSON 19: DEVELOPING OUR TALENTS
- THE LATTER-DAY SAINT WOMAN: BASIC MANUAL FOR WOMEN, PART A, LESSON 27: DEVELOPING OUR TALENTS
