Teaching Idea on Talents in a Group Setting - Makes You Feel Good

I had a friend teach a class in Sunday School at our church and she did this fun idea for her class. It was an adult class, but we all really enjoyed it and felt so good about ourselves after the class that I thought I would share the idea with you. 

She gave everyone a paper and pencil and asked them to write down their talents that they feel God gave them when they were born. Things that were easy for them or that they felt they did well or were just something effortless that others may struggle with. 

Some people numbered their lists, I found that I rarely number my lists as I usually just make lists of things I need to do and they aren't in any order of when or how they need to be done, they just all need to be done so I may do the fifth thing on the list first so I rarely number my lists and found that many of the others in the room did number theirs. It was just an interesting observation on my part showing how different people think...

I wrote down things that I feel I do well but didn't feel that I do any one of these things better than another so maybe that is why I didn't number them either as maybe in my mind that was giving more importance to one talent over another. 

Once everyone had their talents listed, she then had each person in the room list off two of their strongest talents. Then she had others in the room share what talents we thought that person had. I had something to share about each individual as I have known many of them for 20 years. It was interesting that they listed off things that we may have not known about them and we shared things we thought were talents that they hadn't thought of.... 

Of course, some of the compliments make people blush as in our society it isn't polite to just tell people what we love about them in a public setting unless someone is getting an award or something. I found that after we shared what we thought were there talents, they would ponder on it and then nod their head in agreement but usually with a "I hadn't thought of that" look on their faces 

We were running out of time when I got my turn as we all shared on each person so I just read off the top two things on my list and we moved to the last guy and just before the closing prayer, a woman jumped in and came back to me and said, "You have raised such wonderful girls, they are so kind to others, always looking for ways to help those in need and they are so non-judgmental, you have done a good job and being a good mom is one of your talents. 

I thanked her and the meeting ended, but I noticed that everyone left the meeting with a smile on their faces. I think sometimes we just need to hear positive, and what we are doing right, as so many times people focus on what we aren't doing right. It was a self esteem building exercise and made us all feel good and let us know how others see us in interactions. It was nice. 

I thought it would be a great lesson for girl scouts, boy scouts - bears, wolf, cub groups especially. Also young men and women's groups, church youth groups, school groups and primary aged groups and any class where the people know each other well. Maybe even in prison groups as they really could use some positives in their lives. Prisoners would probably really enjoy this exercise. 

I am grateful to my friend that felt inspired to use this for the lesson as it was such a positive for all involved. 

Have a Blessed and Talent Filled Day!