“Christ, in giving you a talent, trusts you and waits for you to take proper advantage of it. If He has given you certain abilities, then He is not indifferent as to what you do with them. And if, however, you did not receive these abilities— this also is a talent. A talent is not only receiving something, but it is also lacking something.
In the light of faith the good health you have is a talent, but bad health is also a talent. Jesus in each case asks the question. What are you doing with this talent? You can equally waste good health, and even more so, you can waste the lack of health. Everything is a gift; a talent is a gift. God continuously bestows you with gifts.
It is a talent, for example, if you are unable to pray; yet you consider this a misfortune. It is important what you do with this inability to pray. Maybe you have buried this talent and you say to yourself: well, I will not pray. But you can gain so much from it. The inability to pray should intensify your hunger for God, and thereby it can become a means contributing to your sanctification.
The same thing applies when you have problems at home, when the family is quarreling, this also is your talent and an opportunity given to you by God. What can you do with it? If you break down and are discouraged, then you bury it in the ground. It is not possible for a person of faith not to see the deeper meaning of his own experiences. The very search for the deeper understanding of personal experiences is to profit from the talent. If you experience fear, for example, you fear suffering or death— this is also an opportunity offered to you. St Therese of the Child Jesus had a great fear of spiders. Once she told how she had to force herself to remove the spiders’ webs from the alcove under the stairs. This helped her greatly on her way to the Lord. Placed in her hands was a talent from which she knew how to gain profit.”
from The Gift of Faith by Father Tadeusz Dajczer
I like this quote very much.
When I attempted to meditate upon the talents in my life this morning, I found myself wondering what to call it when you simply let two of the talents — say, a short temper and quarreling children — fight it out.
Thank you for sharing this profound thought with us, Melanie. Praying your weather will only improve from here on!