Milestone

I answered a question at Family Home Evening tonight.  It was asked in French, and I answered it in French.  Yay!

The guy teaching the lesson made his questions really clear and easy to understand, which was nice.  The question was:  What is the difference between gifts and talents (spiritually speaking, of course).  Some people answered before me, but I didn't quite get what they were saying, I just knew that they were giving some differences.  I disagreed and said, "Je pense que ce n'est pas un difference [mumble mumble mumble because I didn't know the word for "between".  I just looked it up and it is either "entre" or "parmi"] dons et talents.  Nous allons tout les choses de Dieu, dons et talents."

In other (English) words:  "I think that there isn't a difference between gifts and talents.  We have everything from God, gifts and talents."  I actually said it all in French, more or less correctly!!  Woohoo!  It wasn't the most beautiful or understandable answer I could have given, admittedly.  My point was that talents ARE gifts.  I actually thought the question was rather silly, making a big deal of semantics.  Some words aren't meant for meaning-laden distinctions*.

Anyway, my point here is that I am so proud of myself!  Today was a very good French day!  Such miracles.  I love it.



*Such as, my Mormon friends, "sins" and "transgressions".  People try to make a big deal of the supposed (i.e. completely made up) difference between the two, but I don't buy it.  Semantic differences never hold up under scrutiny.  And they should not form the basis for any sort of doctrine.  Send me a message if you want to hear my whole rant...