The Fourth Wise Man and the Gift of Being You

 This week’s mini episode is all about gratitude, not just for what we have, but for who we are. Clare and Candice talk about being thankful for the unique gifts and talents God has given each of us. Through scripture, a touching story about “The Other Wise Man,” and a few real-life laughs, they remind us that our individuality is divine. 

Sisters with Latter-Day Voices website

Parable of the talents

The Story of the Other Wise Man

Elder Uchtdorf quote “Do Your Part with All Your Heart”

Elder Marvin J. Ashton quote “There Are Many Gifts”

Sisters with Latter-Day Voices website

Transcript

Fair Use & Disclaimer 

This podcast episode may contain brief quotes from external sources, used in a positive and respectful manner for discussion, education, and commentary. These references fall under fair use as they are not used for commercial gain, do not replace the original works, and are presented with proper context and attribution. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are our own and those of our guests. They do not necessarily reflect the official doctrine, beliefs, or positions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Transcript

Candice: Welcome to Sisters: Latter-Day Voices. I'm Candice.
Clare: And I'm Clare. Today we're going to do a mini podcast, and I want to talk about just being thankful. I know it's November, and so right now everyone’s talking about how thankful they are, which is great.

I wanted to do a play on it and talk about how we should be thankful for ourselves — the gift of you. I don’t mean this in a super prideful way, but I think it’s important to be thankful for ourselves. Everyone is a child of God, and you’re unique and beautiful and awesome.

For this last month, I’ve been trying to read scriptures or just do things to help me be more thankful. And I was reading the parable of the talents — of course, in the Bible in Matthew chapter 25. Jesus tells a story about a master who gives three servants some talents, which back then was actually a unit of money.

So one servant gets five talents, one gets two, and one just gets one. The first two invest what they’ve been given and double it. But the last one buries it in the ground. I don’t know if he’s afraid to lose it or hides it, but he doesn’t do anything with it.

When the master comes back, he praises the first two for using their talents wisely. But the one who hid his — he misses out on all the blessings that he could have gotten from trusting it and using it, using what he’d been given.

I love this story. It’s not just about money, but about trust and growth — and how God has given us our own gifts, our own abilities, our own personalities. It’s unique to each individual. Instead of hiding them, we need to use them and make sure we’re growing with our talents and becoming who He sees us as.

Candice: This story made me feel so guilty as a child. Was that just me? I remember every time I’d hear—
 Clare: Really?
 Candice: This story, I would feel intense guilt, like, “I’m just hiding my talents. I don’t have any talents.” I don’t know, it would really stress me out. I don’t know why I—
 Clare: Oh.
 Candice: —felt I—
 Clare: I—
 Candice: —needed to develop it.
 Clare: I always loved it. Like, “What are my gifts?”
 Candice: It’s much more positive for you.
 Clare: I do think that sometimes we compare, and it’s easy to see everyone else’s gifts. Like, “Wow, they’re so good at this.” And maybe that’s because that person is really good at something I’m not necessarily good at.

It’s hard not to be super comparative, but I do feel like we’re all blessed with certain things that we’re really good at. When I see you draw — I can’t even draw a stick figure! My daughter will be like, “That is not a horse,” or, “That is not a cat.” Then I see you, and you can just bust anything out, even without looking at a picture.

At church growing up, when we were doodling, yours actually looked like what you were trying to draw.
 Candice: Thank you.
 Clare: So I think there are so many talents that we all have, and some are big like art, and some are super small — like maybe it’s easy to not lose your cool on your kids. Well, that’s probably a big one. But there are all these things that—
 Candice: It’s kind of tough sometimes.
 Clare: Hey, it’s like when my daughter puts poop on the wall — I didn’t lose my cool!
 Candice: Oh—
 Clare: I’m just—
 Candice: My—
 Clare: Like—
 Candice: Goodness.
 Clare: Okay, I got this.
 Candice: Okay, okay.
 Clare: So we each have our gifts, and maybe that’s one of them!

Candice: I think when we’re little, too, it’s so hard to think of other gifts, because especially when we’re growing up, it’s easy to think of sports talents or music talents — just the obvious ones. But there are so many things like that — keeping your cool, not getting upset, being kind to people, not being judgmental.

There are lots of talents you can have — being good with little kids, things you maybe don’t think of.
 Clare: Yeah.
 Candice: They aren’t obvious talents.
 Clare: Yeah.

And so I wanted to share a quote by Elder Franklin D. Richards. He said, “We must remember that each of us is made in the image of God — that there are no unimportant persons.”

I love that because we all are talented, we all are special, and we are all unique children of God.

I wanted to share a story I just read this week that I think is beautiful. It’s called The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. It’s about this fourth wise man named Artaban. Like the other wise men, he saw the star in the sky and set out to find the Christ child.

He sold everything he had to buy three beautiful gifts — a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl. These were the gifts he was going to give to Jesus. But along the way, he came across a man lying sick and dying on the side of the road. Artaban was trying to get to the other wise men and meet up with them, but he stopped to help.

So he missed his caravan and never caught up with the other three wise men.

Candice: Okay, sorry, I was going to say — isn’t it true that we don’t really know how many wise men there were? Because there were three gifts, but there could have been more than three.
 Clare: Yeah.
 Candice: Yeah, I’ll stop talking. Okay, go.
 Clare: I think it’s great! They don’t talk about how many wise women were there — there were probably thousands, right?
Candice: Probably.
Clare: So—
Candice: So many, so many—
Clare: So—
Candice: Wise women.
Clare: Many! Okay, anyways — back to the story.

By the time he finished caring for this man, the other wise men were gone. Next, he sold one of his jewels and bought supplies so he could keep traveling alone. Along the way, he kept meeting people who needed help — a hungry family, a mother and child in danger, and someone who’d lost hope.

Each time, he gave away another one of his treasures to help them.

Years passed, and Artaban grew old. He never found baby Jesus, and he felt like a complete failure. But at the end of his life, he heard the Savior’s voice: “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.”

In that moment, he realized that he had found Christ every single time he chose to love and serve someone else.

It reminds me of the gifts that we’re each given — and the gift that he was given. He didn’t hide his talents or gifts; he used them. It wasn’t the journey he was expecting, but it was the one God needed him to take.

I think that’s beautiful, because sometimes we’re given challenges in life and we think, “Okay, that is not what I had planned. I can’t believe I have to deal with this.” But really, some of the hardest trials make you a stronger person. They reveal talents and gifts that were hidden — ones you didn’t even know you had — but you were able to endure and keep going.

Candice: That’s beautiful. There’s a reason why hindsight is 20/20, and I think that’s how it is with our experiences. Sometimes we don’t see what we gained until afterward — at least that’s true for me. Then I can look back and see, “Oh, okay, this is why I’m stronger because of that,” or—
 Clare: Mhm.
 Candice: —“this is what I can now handle.”
 Clare: I also think it’s cool because sometimes we pick certain talents — like maybe you started drawing when you were little and thought, “Oh, this is really fun.” Then you took classes and did other things to grow that.

But there are also hidden ones we don’t see. They become something beautiful that we can share with others, and they bless both our lives and others’ lives.

So this Thanksgiving holiday, I guess I’d challenge everyone to reflect on their own gifts. I’m really good at saying prayers and being like, “Oh, I’m thankful for this,” or the obvious things. But then, let’s say after having a cold or a really sore throat, I’ll think, “Wow, I’m so thankful I can swallow my own spit,” or something silly.

But it’s hard to actually pray and say, “I’m thankful that I’m really good at this,” or, “I’m thankful I’ve learned to do this.” So I guess I’m challenging myself to—
 Candice: It’s—
 Clare: So—
 Candice: A good—
 Clare: Just—
 Candice: Thing—
 Clare: To be—
 Candice: To think—
 Clare: Thankful—
 Candice: About—
 Clare: The way Heavenly Father made you.
 Candice: I remember in college, one time in a church class, they challenged us to go ask someone close to us what they thought a unique talent of ours was.
 Clare: Huh?
 Candice: I felt like that was a good challenge. Then we came back the next Sunday and talked about it — about what people said. A lot of people had surprising answers.

I remember asking Mom, “What’s a gift that I have that I’m not aware of?” And she said I was really good at forgiving people — at not holding a grudge. And I thought, “Oh, I’d never thought about that before.”

I realized, yeah, I don’t hold grudges. I guess that’s a good thing. There are some things we don’t see ourselves, but other people close to us can help point them out.

If it’s a gift that you have, you can be thankful for it.
 Clare: Yeah. That’s beautiful. I’ll end on a quote. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “You are a blessed being of light, and you bear within you a potential beyond your own capacity to imagine. You are anything but ordinary.”

So with that, we know that God loves you, and we hope you have a great week. Bye!
 Candice: Bye.