I have come to realize that spiritual gifts behave in the same way. They also need to be exercised to grow. The spiritual gift of faith, for example, is not just a feeling or a mood; it is a principle of action that frequently appears in the scriptures linked to the verb exercise.2 [See, for example, Alma 5:15 32:27 34:17 Moroni 7:25 Doctrine and Covenants 44:2 Just as reading and learning about muscles is not enough to build muscle, reading and learning about faith without adding action is insufficient to build faith.
-Exercising Our Spiritual Muscles By Elder Juan Pablo Villar
April 2019
Mom can type. She had to do finger exercises in order to build the muscle memory for how the fingers move across the typewriter.
This made me think about abilities. I took piano and typing. I practiced and did the exercises but could never progress past a certain point. That's not my talent. It's not my calling. Give me fiber and I can spin, crochet, knit, tat, etc. It's my talent or calling.
Our spiritual muscles are the same. We have different gifts, talents, or, you might say different muscle coordination.
Doctrine and Covenants 46:11–33
It's not a comparison. Everyone has different abilities.
Alma 17:1-4
I love in Alma 17 where Alma meets Ammon and his brothers coming home from teaching the lamanites for the last 14 years. Alma wasn't jealous of their accomplishments in converting the Lamanites. They weren't jealous of Alma being the head of the church. They rejoiced in each other's accomplishments. While with the lamanites, Ammon didn't teach the king, his brothers were called to do that.
They had different callings, different muscles. One job wasn't more important than the other. Lift where you stand. Do your part. It all evens out.
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