Every man should seek to be all he was made to be. Matt. 25:14-30 contains the story of the talents. The villain of the parable is the man with one talent of gold. He was afraid. And fear never has impressed God. The warning is that we don’t need to increase our talents but we are to use the ones we have.

J. Ellsworth Kalas:  “…Every human being begins with a gold coin, a life to be lived.”

Martin Buber: “Everyone has in him something precious that is in no one else.”

I have been doing an inventory: Have I really been true to what is in me? Humility for sure is the clothing of the Christian (I Peter 5) but the unwillingness to be you with all the success and joy that you can muster can be just as prideful as trying to be what you are not.

Steps to being all you are:

   1. Study the book of Matthew 25:14-30 and the talents and own it.
   2. Make a list of things you do well.
   3. Make a list of abilities you have never expressed.
   4. Make a list of gifting you don’t have.
   5. Accept what you don’t have.
   6. Make a deliberate plan to feed your gifts.
   7. Work on a plan to express these gifts.

Winston Churchill: “I am certainly not one of those who needs to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod.”