2.160 Don't Hide the Talents You've Been Given

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

It's great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Welcome to a new week as we dive into some new readings this week.

I love how the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants have just overlaid at moments throughout this study. And this week is going to be an example of that as we are reading Doctrine and Covenants, sections 60 through 63, as well as Alma chapters 6 through 10. It's interesting here that the Lord is going to talk very much inside of 60 and 62 and a couple other places, but really 60 and 62.

He's going to talk about declaring his word and sharing the gospel. And then we're going to get Alma 6 through 10 where Alma goes and is declaring and then he's going to find Amulek and the two of them are going to go as companionships and do missionary work and declare the word. And so this week we're gonna have a lot of word declaring coming through as we look at our messages.

I hope that you're ready to dive in for it because the first one, our thought for today and our scripture for today, comes from Doctrine and Covenants section 60 and we find out here that many of the elders were instructed to teach and preach as they went from town to town from A to B, right? So they're going from A to B, but in between A and B, there's lots of little towns or churches or places to preach. And we find out here that some of those elders chose not to preach in those areas.

They were just like, "Hey, I got to get from A to B, so let's just get there." And then we get this instruction from the Lord in Doctrine and Covenants section 60 verse 2. It says, "But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths. But they hide the talent which I have given unto them because of the fear of man.

Woe unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them." Now this one's a cool one for me even though it's the Lord being angry, right? His anger. I love this one because there's several segments in here that I think we can dissect and find what it means for each one of us to open our mouths.

A lot of people think that just means that you need to go and preach all the time. And while that's maybe a literal reading of this scripture, I look at this idea that they hide the talents which I have given unto them. My friends, what are some of the talents the Lord has blessed you with?

There's a meditative moment that you could take right there and just spend an entire journal entry considering the talents that the Lord has blessed you with. But then what does it look like through those talents for you to open your mouth? And that's where I think things can change a little bit for us.

I give you a real life example for me. I now, I don't even know what we're at here, 520-something episodes into Savory Salt. Clearly I enjoy sharing my thoughts in a podcast.

I have really enjoyed sharing my testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout a podcast. But does that mean that that's the only way others can open their mouths? Absolutely not.

My daughters and my wife, for example, they love to sing in the ward choir. They love to do, you know, sing at school choirs and other opportunities in plays and whatnot. They love to express their voice through song.

And I love that they're willing to do that because quite honestly, you ask me to talk in sacrament meeting, I'm all in. Like sign me up. But you want me to sing in sacrament meeting?

Now that's a different story. I think my voice does a better job inviting the Spirit as I speak than it does if I sing. Now don't get me wrong, I love to sing.

I sing in the car, I sing in the shower, but I'm not great at standing in front of people and singing in Church. So there's two different ways there. What are other ways and talents you've been given?

Perhaps you seem to connect, I don't know—these are just coming to mind here—but perhaps you connect with the elderly better. Well, maybe you have an opportunity to share the light of Jesus Christ with the elderly as you connect with them. Right?

Perhaps it's in a way that maybe you love doing videos on social media. Well, great! That's a talent the Lord blessed you with.

So make some videos that share the light of Jesus Christ. I love this verse because it reminds us not to hide our talents. The Lord has blessed us each with talents for the building up of the Church, for the building up of Zion, for the building up of his gospel to the four corners of the earth.

And it is for you and I to remember not to hide those talents and in our own way figure out what it means for us to open our mouths and share the good word. Let's get together and share the good news, whatever it may be. I've said it before, if you feel like you should start a podcast, start a podcast and share your testimony.

If you want to do it through song, if you want to do it through social media, whatever it looks like, sounds like, feels like, understand that the Lord has blessed us all with talents and those talents can be used to share the Word of God, the love of God to the four corners of the earth. My friends, don't hide the talents that God has blessed you with. That's all for today, my friends.

Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you've made and together we will be savory salt.