Purpose
Learn about and develop your God-given talents so you can bless your life and the lives of others.
Activity Suggestion
Gather everyone in a circle. Give each youth three index cards. Invite them to write down one of their talents on the first card without showing anyone. On the second card, they can write a talent their neighbor to the left has. Have them do the same with the third card but with their neighbor on the right.
If people struggle to think of talents, you could use this list to help them get started:
- Being a friend
- Writing
- Public speaking
- Math
- Reading
- Relaxation
- Drawing
- Painting
- Music
- Photography
- Woodworking
- Creating videos
- Programming
- Telling jokes
- Learning another language
- Teaching
- Being energetic
- Leading
- Listening
- Science
- Overcoming challenges
- Caring for animals
- Journaling
- Managing money
- Storytelling
- Caregiving
- Playing sports
- Dancing
- Being honest
- Sharing testimony
Ask the youth to put all the cards in a container and take turns drawing one out. When a card is drawn, ask the group to guess who it’s about. Then ask anyone who feels they have that talent to raise their hand. Next, ask anyone who’d like to develop that talent to raise their hand. Encourage those who raised their hands to share what they specifically do well or what they’d like to work on.
Be sensitive to those who don’t raise their hands or stand up—recognize their talents and help them discover new ones.
Please adapt activities as necessary to ensure all individuals are able to participate, belong, and contribute.
Adaptation Ideas
- If you want to discover your talents, you have to try something new! Set up areas for people to learn and try out new skills. You might have areas for photography, origami, simple magic tricks, martial arts, math skills, beatboxing, mechanics, or anything else you may think of.
- After the group has learned more about each other’s talents, plan to hold a talent show.
- Ask volunteers to teach their talent or something about their talent to the group. If no one volunteers, be prepared to teach one of your talents to the group.
- Read Matthew 5. As a group, identify and discuss the different talents Jesus teaches about.
Discussion
Encourage youth to talk about how what they are learning can help them and others grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity and should last just a few minutes. You could ask questions like the following:
- How can developing talents help you progress both temporally and eternally?
- Why do you think God gave you different talents from your peers?
- How can you use your talents to help build God’s kingdom?