During his ministry Jesus Christ taught many
parables. One of my personal favorites is the parable of the talents. (
Matthew 25: 14-30) In the story a man entrusts three of his servants with his money. He gives unto one five talents, to another two, and to the last one. Two of the three servants go trade and invest with the money that has been entrusted to them. The other servant however is embarrassed because his master only gave him one talent so he goes and buries it, to hide it from the world. The servants then return to their master to report on what they have done with the responsibilities given them. The two servants who traded and invested the money doubled what they had before. When their master heard this he said, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." The other servant because he had hid his talent came unto his lord with even less then he had before. When he told his lord this, his lord was angry with him, calling him wicked and slothful, and then cast him out from his presence.
There are many things we can learn from this parable, but the thing that has always struck me when reading it is the many opportunities our Heavenly Father give us to prove our trustworthiness to him. We, like the servants, are given things that we have responsibility over. These things could be our responsibility to obey the commandments or an opportunity to help another. This is essentially the purpose of life itself, to prove that we are capable to handle the few responsibilities given to us in this life so that we can earn the things that our father in heaven wants to bless us with in the next. I hope someday that we will all get to hear that congratulatory phrase, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
