Talented

 

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 

Colossians 3:23 (ESV)

Aren't these children talented? I think they are amazing to see the potential in dead wood and sticks and use them to construct tunnels or buildings or whatever they have planned. So often we overlook our talents. 

My grandmother saw me as a teacher when I was a child. I thought I had no interest in teaching. I loved drawing and painting and playing music, basically copying my cousin who could do no wrong. When I began school I developed an interest in writing poetry. The only book I had besides a Bible was Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes so it seems natural I would try to write in rhyme. 

What I really wanted to do was to get married and have lots of children like my great-grandmothers. 

Oh - history was my other great love. So I married, had three children quickly and then the doctor said no more. I wouldn't be able to carry another child to term. That's another story.

 

By this time my oldest was three and beginning to recognize environmental print - Pepsi, Exxon, KMart. I thought if he was interested in reading I should teach him. And I did. Then I taught my second son and my daughter. I liked teaching reading but I didn't have any more children to teach and my husband said no to homeschooling. Wait! Didn't Grandma say I was a teacher? I went back to school.

Several years into teaching we were told if we asked children to write we needed to write. You know, be an example. Don't ask someone to do what you won't do. It was scary but I did it. It was well received by the other teachers and administrators. Grandma said, "Teach." Was the Lord saying, "Write."?

Several years later I retired. I wanted the things I was writing to be illustrated the way I saw them in my mind. I'm particular like that. Years ago agents and publishers wanted to use their own illustrators. Some still do. But many want authors to illustrate or get an illustrator. That's a new twist. So I research, I draw, I paint. 

I heard an author say an important thing the other day, (I apologize I didn't get her name. It was an ETV show). She said, "Experience something common, notice what's going on, what it might mean. Start small." She was referencing writing but I think it applies to any talent the Lord has given us. 

In the parable of the talents, three people were given differing amounts of talents (money in the case of the story). The first two used their talents and acquired more. The last person hid his talent in the sand. It angered the master who took his talent and gave it to the one with the most. 

so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. Matthew 25:25-28 (ESV)

What talents do you have? What desires has the Lord put in your heart? 

Are you using them to honor the Lord while you raise your children and serve your family, your church, and your community? 

Is it time to dig up that talent and put it to use for the Master? 

Father, help me pause and examine the gifts, the talents you have given me. Though they may seem small, help me start noticing them, using them, and rejoice in how you multiply those talents through me. In Jesus's name, Amen.