The parable of the talents has long offered small consolation to me. I am the two-talent gal, giving my all, and trying my best to make the most of my mediocre self. I have envied those with five talents, and wondered why The Lord didn’t trust me to be one of them. Recently I gained an insight that changed my perspective.
How We Multiply our Talents
Taken at face value, the talents in the parable in Matthew 25 represent money. The servant with two talents and the servant with five both double their money. Perhaps they bought seeds, planted them, and sold the crops. Perhaps they bought livestock, bred the animals, and sold the offspring. Whatever they did, their ingenuity made them richer. They made more money.
Since this is a parable, we know it’s not about getting more money. Section 60 of The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that the talent represents our testimony. Our testimonies grow stronger when we open our mouths and share them. Missionaries discover this when teaching the gospel. I have experienced this throughout my life while speaking to a friend, to a family member, teaching a class or preparing a talk. I open my mouth and share what I believe, fragile as it is, and in the process of testifying the spirit touches my heart—not the person I am teaching, but my heart, the testifier—and I find myself thinking “Wow, what I believe really is true.” My testimony grows stronger. I no longer have a two-talent testimony. I have a four-talent testimony.
Endless Doubling
I used to think that the parable ended after the talents were doubled. The talent increase was limited to one doubling. The servants doubled their talents, and one quit with four talents and the other quit with ten. This was short-sighted thinking. Who says the two-talent servant couldn’t take those four talents and turn them into eight? Then he could take the eight talents and they would become 16, and those 16 talents would become 32, etc. I can’t imagine the man traveling to the far country is going to fire a servant who has doubled his money. Pretty soon the 10 talents that I had coveted don’t see like all that much.
It is significant that in the parable of the talents the lord gave talents to his servants. As we interpret the parable, we recognize the talents can represent testimony, but they can also represent ability. As I ponder the church callings I have had over the past 50 years, I recognize that it was the process of serving that enabled me to multiply my talents. The first time I was called as a primary president, I was a nascent learner. I made a lot of mistakes, but I did my best and I learned a ton from that calling. The next time I was called as a primary president, I had twice the talent I had the first time. The calling itself taught me how to be a better servant.
I was first called as a teacher of the gospel when I was 15 years old. In those days, primary was held mid-week and as a teenager I could still attend my young women’s meetings on Sunday and hold a calling in the primary on Wednesday. I was called to teach the “Merrie Miss A”. For two years I taught girls who were only three years younger than I was. I have no doubt I was a marginal teacher. But they kept me on for a second year and I taught “Merrie Miss B” and I became a little better. The first time I was called to teach gospel doctrine I probably talked more than I should have. Years later when I was called to teach gospel doctrine again, I knew more about engaging the class. The calling itself multiplied my talents. I used to be a check-the-box visiting teacher. However, the process of visiting taught me to minister out of love.
Why do some start with more talents?
Upon first reading, we may assume that both the servant with two talents and the servant with five started their talent-doubling in the same place. We assume they were both 19-years-old, both having had the same experiences in the gospel, just embarking on their missions. However, that may not be the case at all.
The servant with two talents may be the 19-year-old and the servant with five may be a senior couple with a lifetime of experience in the church. When hired by the man traveling to a far country, they both have the opportunity to double their talents, but perhaps the senior couple has a head-start. Perhaps they came to the starting line, having already served and having already magnified their talents to the point where they know what to do when trusted with five talents. If he continues faithful, the 19-year-old who is at the starting line with two talents will have far more than 10 talents by the time he serves a senior mission.
Not Left To Chance
We often think that talents are the “luck of the draw.” Some people are born with athletic ability, and some with musical ability and some with social graces. However, being born with these gifts is like being the servant with one talent. If these talents are not developed, we might as well bury them in the dirt and it does us no good to have been born with these talents. If talents are doubled because we develop them, then the talents we have in the first place, whether two or five, are ours because we developed them.
We have a son who is average height, 5’9.” He wanted to play on the church young men’s basketball team when he was a deacon, but he had no skill. The teachers and the priests ran circles around him. Although he was born with height he was determined to make basketball a talent. He began practicing, and drilling. We put a basketball standard up in the driveway and he shot hoops day after day. One of the kids in the neighborhood would come over each day and sit on the front porch and watch him shoot hoops. She offered him a piece of bubble gum for every basket he made. He became super accurate with his shots and was soon welcomed onto the young men’s basketball team. Playing with the big boys enable him to double the talent he had worked to acquire, and he became a very adept basketball player.
Heber J. Grant, the seventh president of the Church was known for his determination to achieve goals that were seemingly beyond his reach. “As a child, he wanted to join the baseball team that would win the Utah territorial championship, but others believed him to be too physically awkward to be successful. In response, he purchased a baseball and practiced throwing the ball for hours against his barn to improve. The team he joined later won the championship. In similar fashion, Grant expressed a desire to be a successful bookkeeper although many of his associates criticized his penmanship. He practiced his writing to the point that he was invited to teach penmanship at one of the local academies. (Wikipedia)
We learn in section 46 of the Doctrine and Covenants that we all come with spiritual gifts, but if we want a spiritual gift we weren’t born with, we can pray to attain that gift. I believe this applies to talents.
My friends who were blessed with five talents can double their talents again and again through opening their mouths and testifying or through serving in various callings. They may go from 10 talents to 20, and then from 20 to 40 and from 40 to 80. They may always have more talent than I have. But that’s okay. I still have enough to be an effective servant. At the end of the day, the reasons we have talents is to bring souls unto Christ. My friends and I are all engaged in the same work, and we are all growing in our capacity to serve.
JeaNette Goates Smith recently returned from the Dominican Republic where she and her husband, Bret, served as mission leaders. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and the author of four books on relationships. For more information go to www.smithfamilytherapy.org
