“Mama, what is my talent?”
When my daughter asked me this question, I felt stumped.
As we began to receive criticism for relocating to Tanzania, I’d asked myself, “Am I depriving our kids?”
“Someday when we return,” I told Cliff, “will they wonder why we never helped them develop their talents?”
I thought about the ballet classes, music lessons, gymnastics and Chinese enrichment that their friends attended… that our kids would have no access to in that remote town that we’d live in.
“Of course they have talents,” Cliff said. “They’re kind!”
“You don’t understand,” I argued. “When I grew up, the cool kids all had a talent like dancing or sports… I grew up feeling I was talented at nothing.”
“Well then change that!” Cliff said. I stood, stunned.
When I did this exercise with my children, I went in wanting to expand their idea of what a “talent” was. Instead, I realized they had more to impart to me.
A “talent” to them meant the ability to be responsible to clean their room, the propensity to spot wildlife or to courage to go on a new adventure.
“I don’t think a talent needs to win you a prize,” said my firstborn.
I’m learning, if we see developing our children’s talents as being from the inside out – as nurturing their characters and fruits of the Spirit more than just equipping them with ways to achieve more in life, we can trust God with their futures more than we can with our own strengths alone.