Sharing Your Talents

"People are More Important Than Cows"

• Bruce Clegg
  

Sharing Your Talents

If you were to look at my friend Bruce Clegg you would see a tall, stout man. In fact, if someone were to ask me to give them a reference for a man who looks like the perfect cowboy, Bruce would be that guy. The great thing about it is that the reference wouldn't be just for looks. He's been a cow man for most of his life. So, you'd never guess that he spent more than two years teaching a class to small children.

When I was teaching children with him I would marvel at the image. Here was this huge man sitting on a tiny little chair with small kids sitting around him. I thought, "How can a man so big and strong be such a great teacher of the small?"

Yet, here he was teaching with me and making a difference in the lives of lots of children. I know he made a difference because I watched the kids as he spoke with them. I watched the kids as they looked up, with their heads tilted back as far as they could go, just to be able to look up into his eyes.

I also loved to watch the kids walk down the hall with him! It was as if I were watching a giant with his little "ducklings" in tow. The kids would line up behind him and they would walk in a perfect line right down the side of the hall. There was never a peep out of them either. They had perfect behavior. It was a testament of their respect and love for him.

My love and respect also grew for him as our weeks and months of teaching together grew into years. Then he got another assignment and he was not going to be teaching the kids with me anymore. I was sad to see him go. And, I wanted to let him know what a difference he had made so I wrote a poem for him.

The poem was called "Big Man, Big Heart." It expressed my feelings in a way that came from my heart. I talked with one of Bruce's daughters after giving him the poem and she said, "When we read it, we all cried because it described our father so perfectly!"

Not long after that conversation with Bruce's daughter I received a card and a package from Bruce. The card said, "Thank you for sharing your talent with me. I have a talent for raising beef and I wanted to share it with you." The package with the card contained the best beef roast I have ever eaten! I knew he had a talent for raising beef, but I had no idea how much of a talent until he shared it with me.

I think that's the way it is with all of us. We look at people from the outside and can't quite see the whole picture until we get to know them enough to share talents. Every single person has unique and important talents to share with the rest of us. That's what I love about Bruce's quote; the inspiration for today; "People are more important than cows."

Bruce was teaching me about the importance of people one day when he told me about a time when he was working on his ranch. He was having some troubles with a cow giving birth to a calf when he got the call to help a friend in the neighborhood. He was worried about his cow and her calf, but when he hesitated to go help our friend, the thought came into his mind telling him that helping our neighbor in need was more important; so he immediately left his ranch to go and help!

Now whenever I'm not real motivated to reach out and use my personal talents to help other people around me, I get this vision of the tallest and biggest-hearted cowboy I know sitting on the back of a horse looking down at me. I see him sit back in his saddle, tip his hat back so I can see his eyes clearly, and say, "Always remember, people are more important than cows!"

I hope I'll always remember that, it's great to have these talents that are unique to me, but if I'm not sharing them with the people around me then they're not important. Talents alone are not enough! Only by using them to help others around you will you be getting the most out of what you have to give. Only then will you be growing to become the most you can be.

I'll never be as tall or as strong as my friend Bruce. But, I hope I can become the biggest user of my talents to help everyone around me as I can. I hope you'll become a giant talent user as well!