Using your talents

Last night in youth we studied the parable of the talents. We looked at what that parable meant then, and what it means now to teenagers who don't necessarily have any money but have lots of giftedness in God.
IT's interesting if you tie that group of verses in with God's conversation with Moses. When God told Moses to go tell the Pharaoh to let His people go Moses came back with a slew of reasons why he couldn't do it. Why he was not the man for that job, and why he didn't think he was the man for that job. Instead, God replied with "What is in your hand." God wanted Moses to realize, and wants us to realize that we need to focus on what we have, and not on what we don't have. We can't use any of our gifts that He has given us if we focus on the ones we don't have.
The parable of the talents shows us how to view God and His gifts to us. One man got 5 talents and doubled it, another got 2 talents and doubled it. Those two men got the exact same reward. So it doesn't matter what our giftedness is, it's what we do with what we possess that matters to God. The man who received one talent buried it, hid it and then dug it up when his master returned. We do this, we take and bury our gifts from God, we put them away and then call on them when He needs them. We should be out making them grow, making them multiply like the first two, then and only then will God be pleased with our work.
We must focus on what we have and not what we lack. We as believers need to focus on using all that God has given us to further His kingdom, so that we too can hear Well done good and faithful servant, you were faithful with little, now share in my happiness.
I found this story in my studies a few weeks ago getting ready for last night's lesson. It's about a young mother who was born with one leg and no hands. The local authorities had decided that she could not care for her newborn baby. Then, some of her family took her to court and it was there in teh courtroom that the baby started crying. She gently lifted the baby, caressed it until it relaxed and then changed it's diaper right there in front of a courtroom full of people, redressed the baby and then sat there nurturing it. The judge later ruled that in that very moment, he made up his mind to allow the mother to keep custody. You see it wasn't what she was lacking that mattered, it was what she possessed that would help that baby grow.
So use your gifts, make them multiply and focus on all that God has given you to be proud of. Then you will begin to see the world through His eyes.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!