There are some men and women in whose company we are at our best, they seem to elevate our souls. There is a story that I am sure I’ve told before but it is worth repeating: An old farmer had a work horse he plowed his fields with and used for all his work. Every year the farmer would curry him and clean him all up when the County Fair came around and then he would enter him in the horse races with some of the finest horses in the county. One year his neighbor came up to him and said, “Why do you enter that old nag in the races when you know he won’t win?” “I know,” said the farmer, “ “I just like to get him lathered up in good company.” It would do us all good to get lathered up in good company once in a while. That’s exactly why I feel I need to go to church each Sunday, – to get lathered up in good company.
We don’t realize what a powerful influence we can be if we live up to our convictions. There was a young lady who told a young man, “If you are a Mormon, I don’t want to be one.” That statement changed the young man’s life and the way he lived. He prepared himself for a mission and converted the girl who said that to him. That was a positive influence from a negative source.
In Luke 24 we read where the two disciples said; “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures.” We all need contact with great souls, souls who can recreate faith and inspire confidence in ourselves and in mankind. When the fire of the Holy Ghost burns in our hearts can we then kindle the divine fire in the hearts and minds of others?
We are all different physically, spiritually and socially. We are all growing in each of those ways as well. Too, we are all at different places in our progression and development of those defining characteristics. If we really understood our purpose while we sojourn on earth we would want to be as far along as we can be before we leave this life. I see the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14) a little differently than is explained in the New Testament. Rather than the man travelling into a far country after giving his servants charge of his goods, I see it as the servants being sent out into the world after having been given certain goods or talents. We have been sent to earth with those certain goods or talents; talents that were inborn characteristics that need to be developed. Our purpose is to develop and build on our talents and return to the Father mature and ready for the next phase of our existence. If we fail to develop them we may even lose those that we were given.
It has been said that; “Every man is in certain respects: like all other men, like some other men, like no other man.” The influence we have on others and likewise the influence they have on us may be related to our likes and our differences. Each person we come in contact with will influences us for good or ill, and will leave an impression of his own character upon us. We have to beware of those who would lower our ideals, who would have us believe that mediocrity is good enough. Even ordinary will do just fine. We are in the process of making ourselves, so to speak, adding less than the best ingredients will make us less palatable to the master. Let us take in and make part of our eternal character only the best influences we can find and associate with: the best books, the best thoughts, the best people who will provide the best influences. We should not be involved in competing but rather to work to be the best that we can make of ourselves. That is my rendition of the parable of the talents.