553. Magnifying the talents the Lord gave each of us!

It is so important to magnify our talents, whatever they are.  Besides the obvious talents in music, art, dance, etc., there are many talents -- in homemaking, handwork, mechanics, etc. for both men and women.  We can work on the talents we know we have, and try other areas we are interested in.  It takes work, and time, and practice to develop any useful talent!  Also included is a quote from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Blog.

This is from Latter Day Light.

Talents Nauvoo, Illinois September 29, 2015 SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Matthew 25:20-21 "And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents,  saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained  beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou 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." QUOTE OF THE DAY: Lorenzo Snow   "There must be a labor of mind, an exertion of those  talents that God has given us; they must be put into exercise. Then, being enlightened by the gift and  power of the Holy Ghost, we may get those ideas and that intelligence and those blessings that are necessary to prepare us for the future, for  scenerioes that are to come. ". . . This remaining idle without putting ourselves into action is of no use; if we remain perfectly neutral, nothing is accomplished. Every principle  that is revealed from the heavens is for our  benefit, for our life, for our salvation and for our happiness" (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, p. 38-39 Mormon Tabernacle Choir Blog Scientific Study Shows a Link Between Musical Training and Successful Children January 21, 2015 Facebook Twitter Google+ E-mail Print Professor Harold Hill from The Music Man may have been onto something with his “Think System” after all! A new study by the University of Vermont College of Medicine shows a scientific link between playing an instrument and brain development. Researchers studied the brain development of 232 children between the ages of 6 to 18, who played a musical instrument. "What we found was the more a child trained on an instrument," said James Hudziak, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont and director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families, "it accelerated cortical organization in attention skill, anxiety management and emotional control." The authors of the study discovered results that were music to their ears—playing music altered the behavior-regulating areas of the brain. For instance, practicing music changed the thickness in the part of the cortex that pertains to "executive functioning, including working memory, attentional control, as well as organization and planning for the future," wrote the studies author’s. Hudziak hopes his findings will help convince people to use positive things, such as music, as a treatment for psychological disorders such as ADHD. A disturbing fact from the U.S. Department of Education reveals, “three-quarters of U.S. high school students ‘Rarely or never’ take extracurricular lessons in music or the arts.” It’s never too late for you or your child to get involved with music on some level, even if it’s simply listening.