How should we use our talents?

We all have different talents. We are all expected to expand, and use them to the fullest. Some have the talent of sports, music, words, and the list will go on.

But recently I have read a blog post from a friend. In short she was questioning herself, if she was using her talent to the best of her ability, and to uplift others. She written a book called the "The Reckoning." I haven't read it but she admits that it doesn't end "happy-ever-after. This book was the reason she started to question herself. For the full post read her blog. Questioning Myself

Now I know that as human being's we love happy-ever-afters. During the great depression, Holly Wood put out a lot of happy-ever-afters. The reason was that it gave people, well one thing, hope for something better, it made them forget what was going on around them, for a time.

As I have mention before I co wrote a 15 min play. It was about pre. Utah. There was a scene within this play that had my young women in pantaloons and pinafores . The costumes were tastefully done. They were modest, and my girls were very comfortable on stage, they felt modest, you couldn't see any thing at all. But still there were people in the audience who felt uncomfortable when they saw these girls in their costumes. I know that you cant please everyone. That is impossible. Was I offended from the feed back? No. Only because my girls were very comfortable.

What gets me is that I have seen plays on a high school stage where teens are wearing less, and doing much more questionable things. There are a lot of LDS people who will not blink an eye at that. But at an LDS church setting, their voices are very loud.

As a director and a writer, finding that balance of proper church standers, and keeping things real, and having things be happily-ever-after, becomes a very delicate balancing act. We want to uplift. We want to show how opposition happen in peoples lives and the very same people over come and rise above that challenge/trial. As the famous saying goes:

"There is opposition in all things." (2 Nephi 2:11 (in the Book Of Mormon))

I don't know anyone who wants to have opposition/trials in their lives. It is natural to want have an easy life, with no trials/oppositions. But with out these hard times we don't grow, learn, and become better people. I myself hate it when hard times come my way. I always fail to ask:

"what should I learn from this?"

I have been though some tough times. Like everyone else, I have seen some of my dreams die. The result of that I have develop some new talents, and learned some new things. The result of this, new dreams started to take root. All of this was good for me.