Parable of the Talents

            Jenna decided she would give the lesson in Family Home Evening Last night.  She lined up three of her bears at the edge of the table and gave the lesson on the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25.

            The lesson itself brought up fond memories as I reminisced over other times when the parable was discussed.

            During a sacrament meeting in Martinsville, three of us had been assigned to talk on each of the parables found in Matthew 25.  My missionary companion had given the parable of the talents - describing three woman in detail and what talents they'd been given.  I don't recall what each of the talents were except for the one who received two talents was the only one in the ward who could do macramé and the sister who was given only one talent hid her typing skills so as not to get stuck typing (before pc's) programs for the Church and ended up becoming inactive as she chose to gamble on Sundays and ended up having to hock her typewriter to cover the debts.

            I used her talk and tweaked it a bit as Corey prepared to go on his mission.  I told my audience that my first character, Gabrielle, was from Woodbridge - the talent capital of the world.  Gabrieele had been given five talents: cooking, gardening, sewing, knitting and hanging wallpaper.  I kept the two talents my companion had given Amy.  She was the only one in the ward who was able to do macramé.  She was shy, but could give the most sincere compliments.  Her ability to lift others with her compliments was a great talent.  And then there was Stephanie.  Instead of the typewriter, I'd given  her the ability to play the piano - which unfortunately - she did not develop into a talent.  Rather she hid her ability and lost her talent as she had not practiced or performed and kept her ability to play a secret.

             Gabrielle had been put in as the director of homemaking meeting (before the name was changed to enrichment activities or whatever) and thus was able to double her talents.  She learned to crochet, bake, canning , macramé (thanks to Amy) and now not only is she able to hang wallpaper, but has designed wallpaper as well.

             Amy was able to double her talents as well.  She learned to bake and learned to dance.  But then there's Stephanie.  As she lost her talent, guess who received that talent to play the piano?  It was Gabrielle - a multi-tasker-mother-of-the-year as well as wallpaper CEO and ward pianist.

             When Roland and I were first married, we gave a lesson to the boys on the parable of the talents. Unlike Jenna, we did not use bears.  We used the boys.  Roland gave them each 20 dollars to "open a business"  Randy decided right away that he would use his money to purchase 20 one dollar candles.  He went from door to door selling his candles for three dollars each or two for five.  That looked like a good idea to Biff and he decided to do the same thing.

            Tony, who had always had a different sense of direction, said he didn't wish to sell candles.  That made sense.  Tony was not the type to go from door to door.  Roland reminded him that there are three ways to sell: product, service or knowledge.  Rather than purchase items to be brought to the customers, why not purchase product and have people come to the seller?  We lived nearby a ball park and Tony purchased sodas to take to the park and set up a stand. 

 

            He put the sodas in the fridge.  They never made it to the park.  He chose to loan some money to his friend  (who never paid him back) and they drank the few sodas he had purchased.  He "lost" his talent. 

            Meanwhile Randy used his profit money to purchase some more candles and continued to sell candles from door-to-door.  Less than a month later, Randy had 40 dollars, Biff had 30 dollars.  Tony had nothing.  I believe all three of them learned what we had intended.