“Investing Our Talents”

Devotional for Friday the 22nd

“To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents,
and to another one talent,  each according to his own ability. 
Then he went on his journey.”

Matthew 25:15

Sometimes as women, we can get so caught up in those around us. It is so easy to allow ourselves to become the “roles” we play. We become Wives, Mothers, Grandmothers, Friends and Confidantes to those around us. There are many more, those are just to name a few.


I took my teenage nephew shopping the other day to get some clothes for him to wear to his Homecoming Dance. I listened to him as he spoke to me about his girlfriend, his football, his music, his school, his view on life, his likes and dislikes, etc. I listened, as I usually do, and was quite happy to catch a glimpse into not only his mind, but into his heart, as well.
Somehow as we were talking, I mentioned to him that I also, love to write. What surprised me was that he was surprised. He said that he never knew that about me. He asked me what I liked to write about, how long I had been writing, and still how surprised he was that he had never known this about me. This was when it dawned on me that I was a part of a lot of people’s lives, but a lot of people were not a part of mine.


Over the years, I have become quite good at keeping “track” of a lot of others in their lives, but I have not been very good at keeping track of myself. For a very long time I have been allowing my hopes, my inspirations, and my dreams to take the “back seat” to the hopes, inspirations and the dreams of those around me. Now, I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. I know that a huge part of being a woman is recognizing that God has given us a wonderful “natural” ability to care for those around us. I also know that most of us find a sense of deep satisfaction and joy when we are able to put that ability to use.


What I am talking about is the risk that we face everyday of becoming so wrapped up in the lives of others, that we begin to “lose” our sense of self. We begin to get so caught up in the dreams and desires of others that we begin to forget our own. I can speak from personal experience that as I have allowed this to take place in my own life, I have begun to feel “restless” and more than a bit unfulfilled inside. It seems that the longer I allow myself to deny myself, the more agitated and unhappy I have become. I not only become this way with myself, but with those around me as well. It seems that allowing ourselves to stay in this place too long can easily become a “breeding ground” for discontentment.


It is not unusual for any of us to struggle with becoming unbalanced at times. There are so many things that we have to juggle on any given day, at any given time, in any given circumstance. What I find to be a tremendous shame is that as we forget ourselves in the midst of everyone else, we are actually keeping so much from them. We are, in a sense, with holding the very best part of us. The dreams, aspirations and longings that the Lord placed inside of us from the very beginning of our creation is what makes us different from any other person. It is the part that makes us “us”.


In Matthew 25:15, Jesus gives us the parable of the talents. He tells us of a man who is going on a journey and how he called his servants together and entrusted a portion of his property to each of them. This verse tells how each of the three men were given the talents according to their own abilities. That verse reads, “To one He gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.” We, also, have all been given gifts and talents. I love the part of how he gave to each of them, “according to their own abilities.” We are all different from one another, and God meant for us to be. There are certain things on the inside of each of us that make us “tick”, so to speak. There are certain areas in each of our lives that we feel a certain “pull” towards.

For me it is writing and speaking. Something happens to me when I sit down to write. It seems as if my fingers begin to dance, and I cannot seem to get the words down fast enough. Or, as I ponder what I would love to speak about, new ideas just seem to “pop” into my head and very naturally begin to align them selves into a certain order. I can feel the passion inside of me begin to “build up” and “spill out” onto the blank paper in front of me. It is almost as if I have been “holding” onto or “storing” something inside of me and I feel such a sense of contentment and joy at being able to finally release it.

This is the part of me that feels the most like “me”. It is where I find the most contentment. I feel as if there is a “knowing” inside of me that this is where I belong. This is the part of me that dreams. This is the part of me that feels that deeply rooted sense of passion. This is the part of me that still feels “young” no matter what age I am. I hope that all of this is making sense to you.

I guess what I am saying is that this is the part of me that I want my Husband, my own children, my teenaged nephew, my grand daughters, and everyone else that I know, to know. This is the part of me that I want to know better. This is the part of me that longs to leave my “mark” on this world. This is the part of me that God formed and placed specifically inside of me, with a plan, and for a purpose.

This is where the Lord has entrusted me with His gifts, according to my ability, just as the man in the parable entrusted his gifts to his servants according to theirs. Also, like the man in the parable, Jesus expects me to be a good steward of these things, and to “invest” them into the lives of others and cause them to multiply. He expects a good return from His investment in me.


This is the part of me that the Lord knew that I would turn over to Him one day, my talents, my passions, and my purpose. He knew that there would be hard things in my life and He knew that He would help me to overcome them. He knew that as I began to know Him and to love Him more and more, that I would not be able to keep it all inside, but that I would desire to share His love for me with others. He designed me with the ability to do that through writing and someday, through speaking. He designed you to do that in your own unique way, with your own unique talents and abilities as well.


To go through this world simply being a part of others lives is not enough. We must share with them the part of ourselves that God has placed that passion in. We must allow them to see and recognize as God begins to “stir” up those places inside of us. We must allow them to watch as God brings our own hopes and dreams into fruition, for how else will they know that they have been given the same opportunity in life.


We must first dare to be ourselves in a world that encourages us all to be alike. We must secondly have the courage to allow God to make us into everything that He wants us to be, and thirdly, we must encourage those that we love to do the same. We must set the example. This is what Jesus was teaching us while He walked on this earth, and this is what He is still teaching us today.


Written by Beverley A. Napier