Using Our Talents

My friend told me about an incident from her youth. One day someone brought her a piece of beautiful material from abroad, at a time when a shortage in our country made it impossible to find such cloth for sale. 

My friend immediately sewed herself a fashionable dress, but she was reluctant to wear it because she felt that she would stand out too much in it. Time passed. She moved the dress from shelf to shelf but never wore it. Hidden from people’s eyes for many years, it never served its owner.

This story reminded me of the biblical parable about the talents. One man’s talent was not put to good use and brought no benefit to its owner (see Matthew 25:14–30). The same is true of our talents, gifts and potential. If we save up our talents and put them away for future possibilities, they are useless, however precious and valuable they may be. Instead, when we use our talents, God multiplies their benefit—to us and to those we seek to serve.