Gospel Message Day 28

Developing Our Talents

I may spend a couple of days on this, because it is a topic I love. And, yes, it is Gospel-related. First, I'll quote from our Gospel Principles manual:

President Joseph F. Smith said, “Every son and every daughter of God has received some talent, and each will be held to strict account for the use or misuse to which it is put” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. [1939], 370). A talent is one kind of stewardship (responsibility in the kingdom of God). The parable of the talents tells us that when we serve well in our stewardship, we will be given greater responsibilities. If we do not serve well, our stewardship will eventually be taken from us. (See Matthew 25:14–30.)

We are also told in the scriptures that we will be judged according to our works (seeMatthew 16:27). By developing and using our talents for other people, we perform good works.

In my own words: Heavenly Father has blessed all of us, His children, with talents. We are not blessed with every talent that exists. Some talents are innate, and others can be acquired. Every talent needs to be recognized or discovered. All talents can be developed and improved upon. And all talents can help build Heavenly Father's kingdom as they are used to serve others.

Examples may help. I'll share what I know personally. A few talents I have discovered and worked on developing in my life include singing, playing the piano, playing the organ, and reading. My organ talent is still in very early development. And yet I have been able to use it to serve, including just this past Sunday when I filled in for our ward organist. Music plays a huge role in our worship. I have also been able to help in that area with my piano playing andy my singing. Even my calling draws on my talents. I was never professionally trained in how to conduct music. But I am able to draw on the times I was working on developing my singing talent in the many choirs I was part of, and remember how my choir directors worked with me.

I love to read. Our family often read our scriptures out loud. This helped me develop reading aloud as a talent, and is something I use every week at work for storytime, but can also use in Church classes when things need to be read out loud. If I can't follow along in what is being read, my mind will wander if the reader isn't very good at reading out loud. I don't know why. It's been that way all my life. If there are others like me, hopefully I can read aloud well enough that they can focus, too. Seems a bit of stretch, but one never knows how their talents may affect others.