Who knew you could learn so much from Billy Dean?

This weekend I had the opportunity of going to a cowboy poetry gathering with my parents and a friend. We saw a few different shows and had great time. We had the opportunity to attend a show by Billy Dean, a country singer, song writer. If you haven't heard his music I would highly recommend it! He does a great job! My dad has been working with him to come to a similar cowboy poetry gathering that goes on in Cache Valley and unlike a lot of the other big name singers Billy Dean doesn't have a manger and prefers that anyone who wants him to do a show talk directly to him about it. As my dad has been working with him he has been so impressed by how real and personable he is. Yesterday at his show, he shared a little bit of his story of how he started to play the guitar and what inspired him to pursue music. He talked about a conversation that he had with his father at a young age soon after he had started to play the guitar. His father told him to pursue his music and do it for the good of the world, to help improve the quality of the lives of those around him. I started to think about the talents that each of us have been given and specifically those talents that maybe I have neglected to develop. I often think that we get so caught up in developing new talents that the ones we already have get set aside and so we end up with a whole bunch of half developed talents. I know that is the case for me.

In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about talents in his parable of the talents, which I think gives a great example of what we should be doing with our talents. Each servant in the parable gets a different number of talents. The man leaves for a time and upon his return checks with his servants so see what they have done with their talents. Two of them doubled their talents while the one that was given the least hid his talent. The master was not pleased with this servant and quickly took the talent. Sometimes I feel really bad for that last servant because his obvious fear of loosing his talent resulted in just that. There are a lot of people out there that would look at their lives and not be able to see the talents they have been given or possibly compare their talents to someones talent that is more noticeable which would cause them to keep their talent hidden. I believe that the Lord makes it very clear when he told us to improve in our time. He doesn't care how much we improve. He just wants us to be working on the talents that he has given us and be constantly improving them. One day we will each stand before the Lord and I have a feeling he will ask us about our talents. Did we use them to bless the lives of others? Did we improve them? I know when I asked myself those questions I could see a lot of improvement. I know that the Lord has given us talents for a reason. There is no talent too small or unnoticeable. No one came here without a talent! I know that if you don't know what your talent is the Lord can help you to know. If you don't want to ask him, ask those around you! Once you find it, improve it, constantly strive to magnify it! I know that Lord will give us numerous ways to use our talents on a daily basis if we desire to!

Back to Billy Dean...he followed his fathers council and has developed his talent of music to the point that he is making a great deal of money doing it. In a conversation with him before the show he talked about how he does music for a living but that isn't his primary purpose for doing it. He has seen the way that his music has affected those around him and how when he writes it brings him closer to God. I believe that is an aspect of talents that is often over looked, there ability to bring us closer to God if we will allow them too. That is improvement. Improvement is of God. We will naturally draw closer to God as we improve our talents.