This last question has been on my mind quite a bit. I see so many talents in other people. Sewing, decorating, crafting, photography, language, cleaning, reading, making others feel good about themselves, serving, the list goes on. But when I think about these talents, do I covet them? Do I wish I were better at such and such? Or can I just look at these people and be happy that they are sharing their talents with me?
My thinking about these questions expanded when I read a few articles about St. Patrick's Day. I read a blog post a while back about a mother who feels like we need to tone the holidays down a little. (Side note, I love how she can make a tough situation into a funny post about working together with other moms to simplify life.) In this article the mother feels that teachers and other moms were over-doing simple little holidays and her children got the idea that these things should be normal. For example- the leprechaun should come over night and leave you a treasure hunt with candy and green pancakes with gold coins etc. Some children at school heard about these things from teachers and friends and started to expect them.
I have seen other posts about this on Facebook. To me, it seemed that the mothers who didn't do these things for their kids felt like they were bad moms. But the moms who were having fun hyping up each holiday weren't doing it to make others feel bad. They were excited and love holidays so they wanted to make traditions for their kids.
If only we could learn to embrace other talents, and those who are sharing them for our benefit, instead of comparing ourselves with them. The moms who felt bad maybe could have just enjoyed the fact that the other moms are sharing their talents and giving ideas to those who wanted to start their own traditions. Maybe explaining to the children about talents and how everyone has different ones.
I feel that children are sent to us for specific reasons and we should make sure that we are the best moms for them. Whether that is a treasure hunt and green pancakes or simply making sure they have a green shirt to wear. I loved this article that talks about being the best mom for your kids.
I do understand both sides- agreeing that some holidays that used to be as simple as wearing a green shirt on St. Patrick's day now deserve a big party in some families. On the other hand it can be fun to make new traditions for every holiday. I'm one who would love to make traditions for these holidays. But, I would feel the pressure of living up to those fun ideas that other moms have. I would think "I'm not doing enough" or "It's not good enough." This would stress me out and my efforts would be over-looked. This very thing of "not being good enough" was talked about in the LDS women's conference a few weeks ago.
In her talk Sisterhood: Oh, How We Need Each Other, Bonnie L. Oscarson says:
"We as women can be particularly hard on ourselves. When we compare ourselves to one another, we will always feel inadequate or resentful of others....We just need to relax and rejoice in our divine differences. We need to realize that we all desire to serve in the kingdom, using our unique talents and gifts in our own ways. Then we can enjoy our sisterhood and our associations and begin to serve."
If we all had the same talents, the world would be boring. It wouldn't be as special. We wouldn't get to enjoy the talents others have because we would all be the same. I need to be better at seeing the talents in others and knowing that we all have different talents and that is okay.
President Thomas S. Monson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke about talents in his talk entitled The Spirit of Relief Society. He said:
"Every woman has been endowed by God with distinctive characteristics, gifts, and talents in order that she may fulfill a specific mission in the eternal plan....Share your talents. Each of you, single or married, regardless of age, has the opportunity to learn and grow. Expand your knowledge, both intellectual and spiritual, to the full stature of your divine potential. There is no limit to your influence for good. Share your talents, for that which we willingly share, we keep. But that which we selfishly keep, we lose."
Let us all share our own talents to become better and to better each other. I loved this quote (I replaced the original word "life" with "a talent"):
"[A talent] is like a camera, what we focus on develops."
Focus on your talents to develop them to the best of your ability. In doing this we can relax and know that we are being the best mothers we can be for the children that were sent to us.
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