Talents

I'm on a mission! A mission to discover my gift... my talent. I just know it's in there, somewhere.

The other day, after discussing gifts and talents for our family devotional, and explaining that every person has at least one God given gift, my 9 year old daughter came to me with a question. I could tell she was trying to be as gentle as possible. She came to me and asked, "Mom, you know how everyone has a talent?"

"Yes."

"What's your talent?"

It was only slightly crushing considering that I already have been struggling with this. I have tried and tried to figure out the answer to this question. But try as I might, I can't come up with an answer. To think that even those closest to me can't see anything that I'm good at, kind of hurt! So, it is my mission at this point to figure out what I am good at. The scriptures tell me that I have one. I believe it's true.

Ruling certain talents or gifts out is easy! First and foremost is music, especially singing. NO ONE wants to hear that. You would cry, trust me on this one. I played the violin for a few years in elementary and jr. high school but I wouldn't say I was particularly good at it. I wasn't terrible but I had to work at it. Definitely not something that came naturally. Piano is another instrument that I tried my hand at as a youngster but again, it didn't come naturally to me. I took lessons for a few years and my kids are already almost caught up to where I ended after only about 5 months of lessons. *Sigh* It's kind of sad. They still think I'm pretty good at it because I taught myself a couple of songs (right hand only) a few years ago. I have yet to add the accompanying hand. Someday...

Once upon a time I was pretty good at dancing. I was always asked why I didn't try out for Dance Company in high school. Grades! That's the answer. Also, I was kind of self-taught so I wasn't bad but I didn't know the names of moves and I didn't ever learn how to do the beautiful leaps, splits, or more complicated turns. Given the chance, I think I could have been pretty good. So, let's rule that out too.

CRAFTS! Every Mormon mommy is good at that, right? Ummm, no. Not this Mormon mommy. I can copy certain things but coming up with things on my own is another story. And I can only copy very simple things. I just don't have a creative mind. I forgot to stand in that line in heaven.

Let's just say that I don't fall under the category of "gifted" in the tangible gifts/talents area. I'm not intelligent enough to fall under the "gift of smarts" category, and I certainly have a lot of growing and learning to do in the spiritual category. There are a lot of stories I don't understand or even know about in the Book of Mormon and Bible.

So, where do my talents lie? I'm going to find out! I will, someday.