This little lesson helped me learn lots. In June I gave each member of our Sabbath School, which were five at the time, 300 francs, or about 75 cents Canadian. When you consider that the average pay for a full eight hours of work for a mason’s assistant is 1000 francs, it is a nice little sum having 300. I told them to do something with the money to help someone else. Of course the idea came from Jesus’ parable of the talents, and also from an Adventures in Odyssey adaptation of the parable called “The Buck Starts Here”.
I kept forgetting to ask them about their assignment, and with preparations to visit home, I completely forget, until last Sabbath. I had some varied responses, quite similar to the original story! Two boys had collaborated and given 100 francs to three different people to help them out with daily food. One boy still had his money as he really didn’t think of what he could do with only 300 francs. I encouraged him to not think too big, but simple, and we’ll see what he does in the future. Another of them gave the money also to some different friends to help them. Then the fifth was a little embarrassed. He had the money a long time, and after a while went to buy pants at the market, he only had two hundred francs and the pants cost five, so he used the 300 to complete the deal. I was disappointed, everyone snickered at his mess-up. I chided him and told him I was disappointed in what he did, but told everyone that it was a good lesson to use money we put aside for God or to help others quickly or we will be tempted to quickly spend it! I am still not sure if there is a punishment for the one delinquent.
The illustration was great and rewarding, maybe I’ll have opportunity to do a repeat in the future with new class members.
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You know this parable of the talents always has tugged at my heart. I always felt that if someone entrusted me with a large sum of money until their return, I would be terrified to lose it or have it stolen, so I probably would put it in the bank and let it draw interest............I always envied people who answered that question by saying they would invest it and triple its value or some such thing. I felt puny because I felt that their way was the better way and yet my fear-based response was genuine...............so i've always wondered what talents God has blessed me with that i am just storing safely because i'm scared to use them............very thought provoking, and it keeps coming back..................I have these conversations in my head with Jesus, when he asks me what I've done with my talents..........I am ashamed but yet I do nothing........James 1:22 comes to mind, how convicting
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. I am like the man who looks at his face in the mirror and sees spots and instead of washing them off, walks away and forgets what he saw and consequently does nothing......I'm a NOT-DOER, how alarming! Which is worse, meaning to do good and not doing it or buying a pair of pants with money that was given to help others?????????
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