When I was a child, I had a few tough years. We lived in a tiny town in eastern Iowa. There were twenty-three kids in my class and I didn’t fit in with those girls. There was one ‘clique’ of girls that weren’t terribly friendly, with a few stragglers around the edges – and there was me. I got along great with the boys, they didn’t expect me to live by some strange ‘girl’ code and allowed me to just play games on the playground whenever I chose to do so. They competed academically with me without any jealousy and we had great fun together. Except … that made the girls jealous. Oh, and then there was the whole ‘your father is a preacher and you won’t be in town that long anyway’ thing going on. And by the way, your hair is curly and you don’t fit in … oh, and you’re getting attention because you nearly died from a heart condition, you always have the right answers in class and you’re the teacher’s pet in music class. More often than not, I went home from school in tears because they’d ganged up on and made fun of me. Those were rough years.
But every time I encountered that garbage from those girls, Mom would sit down with me and tell me how unique I was. She would remind me of the many talents I had and that she and Dad were always proud of me. She never allowed me to dumb myself down to fit in with them, talked to me about being myself and being proud of myself, and told me to stand up for what was right. I learned that it was my responsibility to make sure that the other girls who were being bullied and ridiculed felt safe. And in all things, I was expected to never lower myself to their behavior, because I was their daughter. They loved me. That’s all that mattered.
That encouragement from Mom continued throughout the rest of her life. She always told me that I was unique, I was special, I was more than what the world thought of me. No matter what came at me, I heard her words over and over and even today, it is those words that allow me to do things differently than others expect and be confident when I move forward.
Too many people have never had that person or managed to forget that encouragement. The world has a tendency to beat us down, to tell us we are nothing special, to remind us that we are common. We are constantly told that we can’t do things. That information is reinforced when we make errors in judgment or make poor decisions regarding life decisions. We come to believe that we have gotten ourselves to a point in our lives where we can no longer lift our head out of the mire.
While your talents and unique characteristics may not affect the world on a profound basis, do you know how amazing you are? Do you have someone in your life that tells you over and over that you are special and talented, that you are unique and there is no one like you?
Or have you let the world tell you that you are common and boring, destined to live a life of quiet desperation?
Throw those things off!
God did not call you to be bland, boring and lifeless. He has endowed each of us with His gifts and His life. To be anything less is to reject the gift of creation.
So, not only does God tell you every morning that you are special and unique to Him, I’m telling you … you have a gift that you are to give this world. You are here because God needs you here. You are here because your life is incredible.
And because it’s the beginning of the week AND I figured out how to do the progress bar chart – here it is, in all of its glory. Polly – Book 8 is 40% written! I’m a little excited about that. I just keep plugging away.
Progress – 09/30/14
