Let Your Light So Shine...

When I was in an art class in college, my professor would constantly make all of us students hang our work for the rest of the class to see. Many of the students, myself included, were very reluctant to do this. We lacked confidence in our talent and worried that we would be judged harshly by the other students. One day, when the professor asked us to put our latest assignment up on the wall, we started complaining. She was a level-headed teacher, so I was surprised when she became angry and said, "Why are you being so selfish?" We were caught off guard. What was she talking about? Someone said, "We're just shy about showing our work. How is that selfish?" With undisguised disgust she said, "If you've been given this talent and then are totally unwilling to share it with anyone, that's selfish. Keeping everything to yourself when you could be learning from and inspiring each other, that's selfish." We shut up and hung our work. No one ever complained again.

This experience was a paradigm shift for me. I'd never thought of my work like that before. Keeping my talents hidden away from anyone but a few select friends was my regular MO. It had never occurred to me that this was selfish. But it is! Joseph F. Smith, a former president of the LDS church, said, “Every son and every daughter of God has received some talent, and each will be held to strict account for the use or misuse to which it is put.” Certainly, being selfish with our talents constitutes misuse. God didn't give them to us to bury in the ground. He gave them to us to serve others.

We should strive to be as is described in Mathew 5: 14-16 "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

It can be terrifying to share our work, but we must share it anyway. We might worry that it looks like showing off or boasting, but we must share it anyway. We often think our work isn't good enough. So what? Share it anyway. To do anything less shows ingratitude to God who gave us our talents and selfishness to any who might have benefited from our work.

This is a sketch from my journal based off a Saharan rock carving.