She's so accomplished.

Last year when my mom and dad were boxing up things I saw at the top of a pile of books a book by Erma Bombeck. Erma was a humor columnist from the 60's to the 90's. Her columns mostly talk about the life of a suburban housewife. The book was entitled Forever, Erma and is a compilation of many of her columns. I was instantly hooked by the first article. I laughed so hard I had to hold the book up because I was crying. She writes often about her lack of craftiness and other motherly homemaking skills. Anyone that knows my family knows that those gifts pretty much skipped me so I found her columns quite refreshing.

One of Erma's articles is entitled Talent and is dedicated to "the woman who believes that when talent was passed out, she was on her knees scraping crumble cookies out of the carpet". I personally loved this article. I have never felt that my talents are displayable and often look at others and think wow, she is so accomplished (okay actually I think talented but I thought I would steal a line from Jane). Erma wrote of wanting a real talent, one that could be "immortalized in cement". She started looking at the things she admired most in others and it wasn't the flashy talents but rather the small things. So after reading this article I thought about the things I admire in others. And though I appreciate the musical abilities of some and the artistic ability of others (mostly because I can copy their ideas) the talents I really want to develop are the understated talents. I have a friend who is amazing with children. She is so calm, patient and slow to anger. Other talents I have admired are: the talent to see the positive and humorous side of life, the talent to make others feel important and needed, the talent to put others needs first before you start on your own, and as Erma put it "the talent to recognize what you have going for you and to use it to its fullest".

Since I have been thinking about talents this last week I thought it interesting that we touched on this subject in church today. We were talking about the pre-earth life and that we were spirit sons and daughters of God before we came to this earth. We developed personalities and talents while there. One woman said that because we were spirits we developed spiritual gifts. In the scriptures we learn that some of the gifts of the Spirit, or Holy Ghost, are wisdom, knowledge, faith, and the gift to know that Jesus is the Son of God. These spiritual gifts, or talents, have been given to us so that we may bless and enhance the lives of those around us. How many of us will write musical scores that bring kings to their feet, write an award winning book, or paint pictures that will be copied for centuries? But how many of us will have someone that doesn't remember our name but remembers that we were nice to them.....a child that has known our love.....someone that has been strengthened by our testimony of the Savior. These talents are in no way less significant than the "displayable" talents. I would daresay they are much more important. She who develops the talents of the Spirit is truly accomplished.