When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”

The line frames life as a stewardship: talents are gifts held in trust rather than possessions to hoard. By imagining herself “before God,” Bombeck casts ordinary choices—work, creativity, service, courage—as morally significant, measured against whether one fully spent what one was given. The wish to have “not a single bit of talent left” rejects the safety of unused potential and the fear of failure; it praises risk, generosity, and disciplined effort. In a broader cultural sense, it echoes a familiar religious-ethical idea (akin to the parable of the talents) that fulfillment comes from deploying one’s abilities for others and for one’s calling, not merely preserving them.