on talent

as children of Heavenly Father, we each have unlimited potential for developing talents. everything that you admire and love about others is in you; we are all created in the image of our Father in Heaven.
i wish i had realized this sooner in my life. i remember feeling untalented as a teenager. i felt "kinda good" at a lot of things, but not "really good" at anything. i admired my parents, who are both powerhouses of creativity and talent. i didn't realize that i had availiable to me any talent i wished for until years later, after i had actually spent years developing skills while simutaneously feeling 'untalented.' (even though all-the-while my mother was telling me 'you can do anything you put your mind to! you are amazing!') o how i wish i could have a conversation with a 12 year old me! i did not then realize my true worth as a daughter of our Heavenly Father and my potential for talent. i know one reason we are here is to develop our talents: to help each other see what wonderful things are hidden in the world around us, and in each other.

this is one of my favorite quotes, from "All God's Critters Got A Place in the Choir" by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (pulitzer prize winner!) and Emma Lou Thayne. it was a life changing passage for me:

"A number of years ago, I told a friend of mine that I wished I could draw the way she did. 'You could do it if you were willing to take the time,' she answered. I thought she was being unreasonable. After all, she had a talent for drawing and I didn't. As I have thought about it more, I have come to believe that talent is an inner drive that propels a person to take time. People who are experts at something work harder at it than the rest of us because they see (and hear and taste and feel) possibilites the rest of us can't discern- the stairway in the side of a rock, the hat or vest in a yard of cloth, the unfulfilled potential of an organization. People with talent help us see
what is hidden."

to a twelve-year-old me, my sisters, my daughters, my future sons and daughters, my nieces and nephews and anyone who needs a reminder:

you are unimaginably talented. you only need to realize your potential by spending time doing what you love. you can't expect to begin playing the piano a concert pianist, preparing a seven course dinner like a renown chef, run for hours straight like an athlete, or whatever other talents you admire. recognize what you love and have an inner drive for, work on those things, and they will become your talents. the more focus you have on what you want to become, the more time you spend developing it, the quicker it will happen. before you know it you will be that pianist, that chef, that athlete. Heavenly Father created you with u-n-l-i-m-i-t-e-d potential for talent. He wants you to develop and share your gifts. He will help you perfect your talents. everything that you admire and love about others is in you; we are all created in the image of our Father in Heaven. you are wonderful and unique and talented and loved. uncover what it is within you that will help the world see what may be hidden to everyone else.