How do you find joy when you are facing the difficulties of life? How do you have patience and understanding and compassion and forgiveness and love for yourself? We are all made with unique gifts and talents. We have to judge ourselves by standards meant for us. If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will think it is stupid. Its like some people are really good at fixing cars, building objects, accounting, marketing, selling, cutting and styling hair, and so on. What do we do with our gifts and talents? “’For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves cam and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away” (Matt 25: 14-29). Whatever talents we are given by God, we should not keep them to ourselves and hide them away. That is the safe path where we don’t get hurt and don’t lose them. When we share our talents with others, we risk getting hurt and losing what we have.

We are not meant to do everything by ourselves. Even God is 3 persons. They all work together. We are made to work to the best of our abilities and to work together with others who can do what we can’t. By working together, we can accomplish more.

How do we find our strengths? How do we learn to not judge ourselves harshly and by others’ strengths which are our weaknesses? Our strengths are someone else’s weaknesses. How hard is it to show others our weaknesses? We need to humble ourselves to allow our weaknesses to show because there is nothing wrong with weaknesses and needing help from others. God knows our weaknesses and will help us. Jesus said ask and you shall receive. Ask for anything in my name. We need to learn to bring God everything even if it is we are mad at Him because prayer is a conversation with God. A good conversation is open and honest. If we hide the fact that we are mad at God, then we are not being honest with God or ourselves. If we are not honest with ourselves, how are we able to turn from doing evil to following God?