College No Talent

 In high school I was almost the top of my class. I took honors and AP classes, and I was one of the smartest kids I knew.  I felt like that was one of my real talents--I was smart!  (Not very humble about it at all...but smart!)  

Then I went to BYU.  And I was in the honors dorm.  I had a scholarship but many of the others in my dorm had presidential scholarships.  I had a good ACT score, but a few of them had perfect ACT scores.  After just a few weeks, I realized that I was not the smartest person around.  And so many of them were not only smart but seemed to have many other talents as well.  What about me?  I couldn't sing or dance or play a musical instrument.  I wasn't artistic or funny or athletic.  I suddenly felt very much without talents.  It was a struggle.  But I began to read my patriarchal blessing and noticed some talents it mentioned that aren't easy to display but are talents nonetheless.  I did well in my classes and realized that I was still smart--just not the smartest and that's okay.  I made friends and began to worry less about how I measured up to them.  

**This sounds a lot like Brooke Romney's story...it is a lot like her story.  "Comparison is the thief of joy."

It's years later...more than 25 years after my freshman year in college.  I'm not the smartest person I know, but I am smart.  And I do have talents.  Some of them are talents I read about in my patriarchal blessing that gave me comfort and some are other talents that I have recognized or developed since then. And I'm continually trying to develop additional talents.

A few of my talents include:

*an ability to recall scriptures and words of the apostles to aid in teaching

*compassion

*an ability to speak in church or other public settings with only a small amount of nervousness and usually able to express my thoughts relatively eloquently

*teaching

*these days I'm pretty good at using Zoom and Canvas  (haha...thanks, Covid!)

*ability to bear testimony

*I can/do weep when touched by the Spirit.

*I'm good at serving others.

*I'm good at keeping a journal/documenting my life story.

LESSONS LEARNED:

We all have talents and spiritual gifts.

We can continue to develop new talents. (This year I'm taking piano lessons...just started this week.)

Our patriarchal blessing can help us know what some of our gifts are.

DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF (or your life) TO OTHERS!!