Gifts and Goals

In this season of gifts and goals, I’ve been considering how the two things should be related. It’s natural to look at them together; after all, we’ve spent the Christmas season focusing on gifts, and now, a few weeks later, we’re thinking about our goals for the year.

We all recognize that our talents, including our ability to write, are gifts from our Heavenly Father. Just like a gift we receive at Christmas, where the giver hopes that we use his gift, God hopes that we will use the gifts and talents he has given us. However, I believe that  God expects more from us than only using our talent to write. President Spencer W. Kimball said: “God has endowed us with talents and time, with latent abilities and with opportunities to use and develop them in his service. He therefore expects much of us, his privileged children” (The Miracle of Forgiveness [1969], 100).

Three small words, “in his service,” change everything in that quote and prompt me to ask myself a question: When was the last time that I used my talent for writing “in His service?”

Some of you writers are amazing—writing scripts for church productions and beautiful religious music—but I’ve never been given that opportunity. Sure, I’ve used my talent for accounting to help ANWA by serving as Treasurer, but I haven’t used my writing talent “in His service.”

So, I’m hoping that some of you will join me in one of my 2014 writing goals. My goal is to find ways to use my gift for writing to serve God at least once a month. Blogging, writing emails, writing letters, writing family history stories, etc. will all count. Perhaps you’ve thought of others?

Then, when we are using our talents “in His service,” our Heavenly Father will magnify those talents and make us “sharper pencils” in His hands.