The first account I'd like you to see is a large multifaceted one called 'Talent." And before you skip lightly through it thinking, "This account is not for me because I don't have any talent," let me tell you of an experience I had some years ago.
     I was honored to be singing and speaking for the Protestant Women of the Chapel at the Army's Sukiran Chapel in Okinawa. At the beginning of my program, I said that after I sang I would be talking about talent. But even as I announced it, I felt someone, perhaps many, would hear the word "talent" and think, "Well, that lets me out - I'm not talented at all!"
     I was counting on the Lord to really speak through me since many women (myself included) have the problem of low self-esteem at some level. Some of us really believe we are of no value, or at best, of little worth as human souls.
     One of the first women to reach me after the meeting was a lovely lady whose eyes were sparkling and glistening with tears.
     "You know, Joyce," she began, "when you said the word 'talent' today, I almost got up and walked out because if there is one thing I don't have, it's talent. But I decided to stay anyway. I'm so glad I did. As I listened to you, it seemed as if God was pointing out one talent after another in my life ... I had no idea they existed.  It was deeply moved and convicted.  I've asked the Lord to forgive me for not recognizing them, and I've come out of this meeting feeling that I just may be far more needed and useful in this life than I dreamed.  I'm looking forward to fulfilling some new life goals."
     She was not the only woman who came to the meeting feeling inadequate and untalented.  Many of us honestly believe we have no God-given talent and, of course, that deeply affects our perception of who we are as women.
     A minister once told me that 50 percent of the women he counseled in his office were there because of their feelings of having no worth, no talent, or no real purpose in living.
     Women, not only on an Army base in Okinawa, but all over the world have fallen into the common trap of defining talent as only the ability to play the piano, to sing, or to paint lovely oil paintings, when in reality, talent is having a natural, God-given ability to do something, anything, well.
     You might ask, "Great, what are the 'somethings I do very well' in my life?"
     Here is a list of just a few examples:

1.	The talent to be cheerful.  Particularly when nothing is going right, you've spent the day errand-chasing all over town, and everyone has been less than nice.
2.	The talent to be hospitable.  To open your home and entertain angels (or teenagers) even though your couch is threadbare, the living room needs painting, or you just began payments on white carpeting in your living room.  (Time proved that when my kids were teenagers the white carpet I chose for my living room was not one of my swiftest decorating moves.  Oh well, I enjoyed it.  For a while.)
3.	The talent to know how to affirm and demonstrate your love for your loved ones.  Even though you know, better than most, all their foibles and faults.
4.	The talent to speak your mind with loving tact.  I know a woman who, if she wanted to, could give you a "bawling out" with such tact you wouldn't realize it until three weeks later.  That's real talent!
5.	The talent to take a course in oil painting, sewing, or business and finish it, or the talent to go back to school and graduate or get a degree.  Now this requires the talent of self-discipline!
6.	The talent to upholster your own chair, add unique buttons to a ready-made dress, or take a Simplicity, Jiffy pattern and make baby sacks for the missionary project even though sewing a straight seam has never been your strong point.
7.	The talent of being on time.  It seems to me that the busier life gets, the more we miss deadlines, appointments and schedules.  I'm not suggesting that we arrive early for anything - but being on time is a whole lot better than being late.  However, the talent to be on time is a rare one today.
8.	The talent of communicating love without words.  Doing it by a look, a pat on the arm, a smile, or just taking the time to lovingly look at a child's drawing.
9.	The talent of finding out what "pleasures" each member of your family and doing it on a regular basis.  When my son, Rick, was growing up he used to love chocolate pudding cake.  Now that he is almost forty years old, it still gives me joy to make it for him and his family as I did on a recent visit with them.  Laurie always liked the way I decorated our homes.  Now that she has her own family and home, I delight in "re-doing" rooms for her...like this past week when my grandson James' room got a new fresh look and I got to staple up sheets on the walls in the kids' bathroom. My husband LOVES my macaroni and cheese.  No, actually he LOVES everything I cook.  So it makes cooking a pleasurable thing for me.  Actually, it's a beautiful experience to give my family pleasure; to know what makes them happy, and then go ahead and do it.
10.	The talent of listening when someone speaks.  An astonishing number of people never heard of this talent, but once you find a friend talented in this direction, you never get over it!  You stand in awe of him or her and your love for this friend becomes an ever deepening experience.
11.	The talent of watching how your children throw down their school books and praying to God for wisdom in asking, "Hi, Honey, how was school today?"  Motherhood is no easy trick nor is it thoughtlessly done.  I've come to realize how very talented my mother was with all her children and am not surprised that my sister Marilyn, who has four daughters and one son, has inherited our mother's talent of wisdom.
12.	The talent to make lumpless gravy like my mother-in-law Margaret used to do and Laurie's mother-in-law, Evelyn, does now.

     These are twelve talents that popped into my mind with only casual effort.  There are many, many more.  Did you find one of yours?  If not, make a list.  The talents are endless.  Let's go back for moment to the first talent, the talent of being cheerful.
     It's easy to be cheerful and kind to lovely, easy-to-get-along-with people.  But if God has given you this talent, you'll have high adventure just on an average day of going to school, to work or shopping, baking or running errands.  The opportunities to be cheerful are endless!
     The big joy of this talent is the powerful Christian witness it gives to those around you and those you interact with during the day.
     For a number of years I was actively engaged in presenting Christ to two checkers and three box boys at the supermarket and to three or four tellers at the bank.  I prayed for them regularly and dearly coveted their souls for God though some of them had no idea that for years their names had been on my daily prayer list. Each time I was with them I prayed, smiled and listened very carefully (not necessarily in that order), and God produced some special miracles in several of their lives. Now it's true, he used my first book in one case, but other than that, my singing and piano-playing talents were not called upon. In fact, never once during these three years of shopping or banking did I wheel in my piano and say, "Have I got a treat for you! I'm going to use my vocal and piano talent that God has given to me as a witness to you." Nor did I jump up on the checkout counter to sing a few numbers and use those talents! In fact, some of the very ones who were reached in those years by our heavenly father never did hear me sing, and it's quite conceivable they never did know of my "other" talents.
     The talents they did see were of a quite different nature. Those other talents began with my coming up to the checkout counter at the supermarket and beating the checker at saying, "Hi, how are you today?" She was paid to be polite. I wasn't.
     One day at the bank after I said first, "Hello, how are you today?' the teller put down her pencil, shook her head, and said, "Joyce, you are something else! You aren't like any other Christian woman I've ever known."
     I wasn't sure exactly how to take that, so I asked, "How do you mean?"
     "You always radiate" (she stumbled for words here because she was in unfamiliar territory) "uh, Christian love. If I didn't know you were religious I would never have guessed you to be a Christian. You're cheerful, kind, and have a sense of humor."
     "You mean other Christians don't?  I asked.
     "Not when they come in here," she snapped.  What a sad commentary on us as Christians!
     The talent for being cheerful, smiling, and pleasant even when it's raining buckets of problems is the talent Paul and Silas had ... particularly when they sang in prison! It was a God-given ability that had them singing in spite of their prison experience.
     It's highly possible that if your talent is being cheerful or one of the others on my list, you may never become famous. My mother was a classic example of this. She died in 1966, when she was in her late fifties. She was never published (although she left me volumes of her written thoughts, and was never a household word among women, yet her influence then with people and her influence now continues to shape and mold me and countless thousands even today. So remember, books may not be written about your life; songs may never be sung or dedicated to you; but the God who sees and knows all things keeps perfect records. He does not classify your special ability of being a great cook, knowing how to bake apricot pie, balancing a checkbook, dressing a skinned knee, raising, teaching, and training children, being a librarian, a lawyer, a doctor, a minister, a secretary, a clerk, or a professional business woman as non-talents.
     On the contrary, through Paul we have these words, "I can never stop thanking God for all the wonderful gifts he has given you, now that you are Christ's: he has enriched your whole life ... Now you have every grace and blessing; every spiritual gift and power for doing his will are yours during this time of waiting on the return of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:4, 5,7, Living Bible).
     We tend to get all hung up with our preconceived ideas as to which talents are really important, and in the confusion it is highly possible to miss God's plan for our lives.
     When my son Rick was still a teenager, a friend asked him how it felt to have such a beautiful and talented mother. I loved his answer because he mentally tossed aside "beautiful and talented" and came up with, "I think she's great, but you should taste her chicken and dumplings." (Ah yes, the way to a man's heart...)
     I really appreciated Rick's answer, partly because the "talent" of making chicken and dumplings came after long practice, but mainly because it told me that in his mind my cooking was just as great, if not greater, than my talent as a singer, broadcaster, or writer.
     Perhaps you can't possibly think of cooking chicken and dumplings as a talent. However, I think it takes enormous talent to just be a woman today. If it doesn't, why are so many marriages unraveling at the seams? If it takes no talent to bake a great pie, why is it so many homes and restaurants serve such inferior pies ...or none at all? If it doesn't take talent to raise children, why are abuse and crimes against children spiraling upward? If it doesn't take talent to be a Sunday school teacher, why does the superintendent keep pleading for more teachers and workers all the time?
     Yes, I am oversimplifying it a bit, but you do get the message, don't you? It takes talent to do what might be classified as an "ordinary task" with any degree of expertise.
     Think about your own life for a moment. Isn't there something special you do that certainly could be listed as a talent?
     After hearing me say this, a young mother and friend of mine nodded her head knowingly and said, "Let me tell you, the mother who just listens to her child practicing the piano and is able to keep her sanity and sense of humor at the same time is displaying a great deal of God-given talent!"
     I can still picture another woman who came up to me at the same meeting in Okinawa when I'd talked on talents. She said to me, "Oh, sure you know what talents he's given you, but God's never told me what mine are and I'm fifty-one years old, so it's a little late to find out."  Are you married?" I asked. 
     "Yes," she answered.
     "Any children?"
     Almost nonchalantly she tossed off, "Yes, I've eight kids."
     "Eight? Excuse me?  You have eight kids?  Tell me about them."
     "They're really all marvelous kids," she answered.  "Some are married, some single. A couple have gone into medicine and are doctors.  Two are ministers and one daughter is a missionary."
     I was stunned. I wanted to shout, "Are you kidding? You're standing in front of me saying in effect, 'Poor me, I don't have any talents,' when you have produced and nurtured eight fabulous, worthwhile human beings who are being a credit to God and the human race?"
     Instead I just blurted out, "Don't tell me that didn't take talent! Or did your kids just grow up like weeds without water or cultivation? Didn't you feed and clothe them physically, mentally, and spiritually? Didn't you lovingly discipline and correct them? Didn't you give them praise, love and the benefit of God's wisdom? Didn't you pay for voice, piano, and clarinet lessons? And then listen and watch over all that practice time? Isn't all that being a 'professional mother' just as in my singing and playing I am called a 'professional musician'?" Who dares say that raising children, surrounding them with a loving and a safe home life doesn't take talent?
     I pray that we, especially as Christian women, will allow God to make us teachable so we will see the unique talents he's given all of us for this world in which we live. You may not be rich in my talents, but I'm not rich in yours either. All talents are from God. It's what we do with them that really makes them outstanding.
     Do you remember the little boy who gave Jesus his lunch of five loaves and two fishes? It was hardly enough to feed himself and a friend, much less the thousands who were there that day, yet the boy gave what he had. From that point ... the point of surrendering what he had ... Jesus did the rest!
     Let's not sit back in the comfort of the rut called denial and say we have no talent; rather let's ask God to use what we already have. Let's ask God to make us virtally aware of the special abilities he may choose to develop ... those talents that were within you, all along, just waiting for the spark of God's creative touch to ignite and burst into being.
     Now, let's say that in these past moments God has truly revealed some of the areas in your life where you do have special abilities. How do you handle it? Do you become super-conceited or piously humble? What should your attitude be?
     The key that really opens up the Talent Account is an unlikely one found in the Beatitudes.
     I had never looked at the Beatitudes or thought much about my own connection to them until I read a marvelous piece of writing called The Beatitudes for Women by my friend, Colleen Evans.
     I sang and spoke at the First Presbyterian Church of La Jolla, California, where at that time Colleen's husband, Louie Evans was pastor. Each plate at the luncheon held a copy of her Beatitudes. The booklet gave me a glimpse of an account loaded with resources, so I began to study seriously those remarkable words of Jesus.
     The Beatitude that grabbed my heart as far as talent is concerned was the one about being humble. The Phillips translation says: "How happy are the humble-minded." No other word in Christian circles is so subject to individual interpretation as 'humble." Sermons about being humble go from one extreme to another. One preacher stresses we are all "worm-like" and totally unworthy. The next pastor tells us we are powerful, "we can do all things", and that only muddies up the water. I got tired of wondering just how we were to be balanced about being humble, so I began searching the scriptures for the guidelines God has given us.
     It seems to me that often the word "humble" is linked with our having a talent. It's almost as though if we don't have a talent then humility is not going to be one of our problems. But we all need a sense of humility in our lives; as it acts like a lens to bring things into proper focus.
     As Colleen Evans said: "She is a happy woman who knows that without God she is nothing!  But with God she has great potential and strength!"
     We don't have to have an inferiority complex.  We don't have to bog down on the words to that old hymn "...for such a worm as I"  Listen, darling women, God paid a fantastic price for us, though, as a matter of fact, He didn't owe us a thing! He could have left us stumbling around, wading through one problem after another, living one horrible, unjust day after another, but by God's great, stubborn love, he has chosen to care, to buy back, to give Himself to us and to bless each of us with talents!
     I know perfectly well that God has given me the ability to sing, and I know equally well I have no talent at fixing my own hair. I know, too, that I can cook Hungarian stuffed cabbages (Töltö Kaposzta) to perfection and that I have mastered three chords on the guitar, though a fourth won't come through my fingers no matter how hard I practice. What am I saying? Just this: I know my abilities and I know my limitations. The moment I confuse or distort these facts, humility goes out the window.
     The first time I sang a real grown-up solo in my Dad's church, I was thirteen years old. I did, as my mother succinctly put it, "a good job." After the service three older ladies approached me. One woman began with, "My dear" (right there was my first clue. I knew I was going to get it). They said nothing about my song or the way I sang it ... they just pulled themselves up, towered over me and declared, "We are going to pray that God keeps you humble." In light of many things that have happened in the years since - I suspect those ladies are still alive and probably praying the same prayer!
     It may have been the first left-handed compliment I ever heard. Their words lifted me up and slapped me back down in one short sentence. Those ladies, besides the rejection I felt, put me into the position of feeling as if I should apologize for the talent I believed (and had been told by my mother) God had given me. So from then on, when people did praise my singing, I'd go into my newly learned behavior response and say, "Oh no, thank you, but I can't sing at all. Really, I've so much to learn, etc ... etc." I was hoping they'd think I was genuine and, oh yes, humble.
     It wasn't until after I had grown up a bit that I dropped the false humility mode and accepted and dealt with the fact that it was God who had given me a voice ... and that some people, upon hearing it, even heard and felt the touch of the Lord through my music. When they complimented me, I could honestly be balanced enough to say, 'Thank you, isn't the Lord marvelous!" Without Him I'm nothing, true, but I'm not without Him.  I'm with Him.
     Paul helped tremendously with my attitude regarding talent when he said, 'Try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities" (Rom. 12:3 Phillips' translation).
     There it is,  two thousand years old and right on target. A sane estimate.
     I have long observed that very few of us women have a "sane estimate" of our talents or of our lives in general. That same verse in the Amplified Bible reads, each one rating "his abilities with sober judgment," never underestimating or over estimating.
     The opposite of being humble is being conceited! I've known several musicians who were this way, and their behavior on and off stage was extremely temperamental because of it. But, that kind of conceit is an obvious kind. I'd like to write about the subtle kind of conceit that inhabits some women (and men) today. They are the women who seem to have a deep need within them to control and dominate the lives of other people.
     A group of us had dinner once with one such woman. She told us what restaurant we'd attend, where to park, and where to wait before we were seated. Her husband stood quietly by, minding his p's and q's and trying not to get in the way. She ordered the food for each of us and after the meal told us when we could leave. She was in her eighties and did all of this with a semi-gracious charm, but that did not disguise the fact that she felt she knew everything there was to know about everything. She turned off everyone else's ideas, thoughts, and opinions. She simply had to have the final say. She had so exaggerated her own talents and abilities that her conceit had developed into control, and the absence of humility made her extremely unattractive.
     What a waste, I recall thinking. She was intelligent and had some eighty years of experience she could have shared with us; but she was so busy calling all the shots and making people jump on command that we never really got to know her.
     What all of us could use in our relationships with others is the lovely balance of Paul's words to form our own "sane estimate of our capabilities." We need to be balanced and honest in seeking how to handle our talents.
     When I first wrote this chapter, years ago, I was at Hume Lake Christian Camp Grounds in the beautiful mountains above Fresno, California. I was speaking at a Women's Auxiliary tea, and I departed from my usual speaking arrangements to ask them if I could share a part of a new book I was writing (this one). They couldn't very well object (smile), so I began giving my ideas about humility and invited them to give me their ideas.
     Afterward a gifted woman, Bobby Romis, said she'd like to share one thought with me.
     Bobby opened her Bible to the familiar passage in Proverbs 31 on "the virtuous woman." When she got to the eighteenth verse she said, 'While you were talking about humility and talent I remembered this verse, "She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff!'" Then Bobby looked up from her reading and said, 'What a woman! As she appraised her own merchandise, she knew (no apologies and no bragging) that it was good." The balance of a sane estimate is obviously here.
     Bobby continued, "In other words, this Proverbs woman would be the one who would accept the chairmanship of the Hume Lake Country Fair. She would know how to do it and she would set up committees involving the best women she could find. She would work far into the night to make the Country Fair a success ['... her candle goeth not out by night ...'] and when the fair was over, she'd know her 'merchandise was good' and she'd go home and spin wool!
     "Look at her. She goes home from being a brainy, hard- working chairman of the Hume Lake fair to spinning wool. She is not insulted at the change in status, no 'poor me' spirit; and because spinning wool takes no mind-bending efforts, she probably takes that time to pray for her husband, children, and her own business interests. What a woman! She knows her talents are good, stays up to carry them out, and is beautifully able to be home spinning wool the following day."
     Bobby finished by saying, "I feel God has set up a pattern for us in these verses: honestly knowing our outside-of-the-home talents; working hard and bringing them into completion; and then, even with the problems of readjusting, having a routine day in the home. We need a time to sit, or to be quiet and, yes, even to sew, iron, and do dishes-using that time to renew our own strength and to pray for the dear members of our family."
     As Bobby finished her thoughts on this pattern of balance, I thought of the endless number of times I've given concerts, spoken to several hundred women, or counseled with a woman or a teenager, and then came home to the quiet of my sewing room turned on my iron, and prayed over the clothes as I've ironed them.
     One of my favorite humorous writers, Erma Bombeck, said she got her best ideas for her writing over the ironing board. I know how that works, except that with me, I've always done my best praying over an ironing board.
     I've had years of practice at praying over a shirt, a blouse, a pair of pants or a dress. I've prayed over collars and the stressed-out neck muscles they would be covering. I've prayed for sleeves that would hold an arm that must do so many things. And whenever I got to a front panel of a shirt, blouse, or dress, I'd pray loving prayers for the heart that would beat beneath the fabric. It was particularly delightful to pray over Rick's or Laurie's clothes as I ironed them - besides it made a boring task a tad more interesting, and in those quiet moments of household meditation I think I grew in stature and my loved ones benefited from it. Who's to say that singing a whole concert, writing a book or giving a public speech takes more talent than the ironing? Not I!
     This whole chapter on talent can be summed up in one exciting verse: "God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God's many kinds of blessing" (1 Peter 4:10, Living Bible).
     If we say we have no special abilities, we are either in denial or calling God a liar. If our motives in being used are not to help each other, then we think talent is only singing or playing piano, and we rob ourselves and others of "God's many kinds of blessings."
     Our living in this twentieth-century world does not have to be a boring, worthless, "nothing" type of existence. It can be the door to real, creative living, the hinges of which are oiled with a "sane estimate of our capabilities."
     We need to start right now; it's never too late. We can quit the tired old routine of "poor me, I have no talents" and begin to take a good look at ourselves and own unique talents and abilities.
     While it may not take too much effort to convince you that your singing talents aren't too great, you just may find an extraordinary personal skill in your kitchen staring down into the gravy skillet, or at your job talking out loud to your computer. Do you know what talent lumpless gravy requires? Or maybe the computer is just your cup of tea, and you are presently discovering a talent you never knew you had! (Not me. I still find telephones a puzzlement, so I'm always going to write my books in long hand.)
     Remember the lady in Okinawa? The one with "I don't have any talents ... just eight kids?" Well I know for a fact that on that day, after hearing that we all have special gifts and abilities, that woman asked the Lord to reach down and touch her vision so she could dearly see her  talents.  She didn't go right out and buy herself a piano so she could begin to play and sing. She simply went home, sensing with new joy her own worth and value and knowing a bit more about her own talents. She was a beautiful woman before the service that day, but she carried herself taller and was positively radiant after the meeting.
     We can all experience the same joy and radiance, the same feeling of self-worth she received if we'll just let God open our eyes to our very our own special abilities and talents.

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