ASWR Assignment 3

Part One:

Miesha: "My Talent is Perseverance."

*What is your talent/gift?

*What are you going to do with it?

*Compare your talent with Miesha's.

Miesha’s talent is perseverance, and I think perseverance is my talent as well.

I don’t mean to say that my talent is anything comparable to Miesha’s because she has a lot more that she needs to persevere through, but I try to persevere through whatever I do.

The perseverance I built up for myself was the result of being challenged through the course of my life. In school and in life I have faced a lot of challenges. Although I did not do the best in the schoolwork that challenged me or overcame extreme odds like Miesha in life, I did not give up. I tried my best to do what I needed to get done no matter how much it seemed hopeless to me because I always knew I had to try.

In the present as well as in the future, I plan to use this “talent” to get me through college and life. No matter what in the world I decide to do, perseverance is a key factor in my success. I know that college and life will have extreme challenges that I need to persevere through in order to be successful. Without perseverance, I would simply give up, be lazy, and have a horrible future. I’m going to use my “talent” of perseverance to get through the hardest moments in life because persevering through the challenges is the only way I can grow. (And I don’t mean height-wise to those who thought of physically growing -_- I know I’m short but I meant on the inside!)

Part Two:

Literary Connection: Jesus' Parable of the Talents NOTE: In ancient times, a measure of gold was called a talent: There once was a master and he had three servants. He goes on a trip and gives gold to each of them. The first one spends it having a good time, the second one purchases a rug in the market place. The third one goes out into the fields and buries it. When the master returns, he asks them what they did with the gold. The first one says, "I spent it and had a great time with my friends." The master says, "Very Good." The second one says, "I purchased a rug in the marketplace." The master says, "Very Good." The third one says, "Master, you will be most proud of me! I buried it in the fields and here it is!" The master beats him and sends him out of his house.

What do you think is Jesus' point? What lesson does he teach and how does it connect to you and Miesha? How does this story work on more than one level?

Jesus’ point in “Jesus’ Parable of the Talents” is that talents need to be put to use in order to mean anything. Every person has at least one talent that can be contributed to his/her own life and to those around him/her. If that person leaves the talent inside, no one will ever benefit – it’ll be a wasted talent. Although the third servant would have been the smartest in a story about character and morals, he is the one who made the biggest mistake in this story because the gold was the “talent” that was given to him. The third servant kept his gold because saving money is important in life. However, because the gold was a mere metaphor for “talent” in this story and the third servant was the only one who did not spend it, he did not use his talent.

Hiding his gold away for “safe keeping” did nothing for him. He did not get anything he really needed or did not have any fun with it, it was as if he did not have it. Nothing came out of it. If he were to have used it on something he wanted or needed, the gold would have meant more. For all he knew, he could die and it would stay buried in the field for someone else to enjoy it with no cost or hard work at all!

The story connects to Miesha and I because it is a message to make use of the talents given to you. If Miesha or I were to have used our talents for some other time, nothing good would have come of it. We would not have completed the tasks that were hard and, in the end, more worthwhile so we would not have anything to be proud of! However, following the moral of this story would allow us to make use of our talent for our benefit.

Because our talent is not gold or anything tangible, we are allowed to use it as much as we want! Our talent is not something that is limited to a mere object such as gold, so we can continue doing the things that require using the talents we were given. I think that would be another message Jesus is trying to say. What I am trying to say is, another moral to this story is that our talent has no limits in that we can use it as much as we want, and we should use it as much as we can.

The story has more than one level of meaning. The first meaning is that if something that has a monetary value is not used, it could be wasted from being lost or stolen. So we should use it before someone else has the chance to enjoy our items for us while we are off to the side, sad that we lost our money. The second level would be what I mentioned earlier – that if we do not use our talents, nothing good will come of it and so many times of learning and benefit would never have happened!