Beautifully Unique

Last week we had a Paint Night with the 4th-6th-grade girls from our church.

If you've never done a paint night with friends, I highly recommend it! It's relaxing, fun and always neat to see how each person's painting turns out a little different!

It was during the painting time that I overheard various conversations that have stuck with me the past several days and caused me to think and reflect. When we were wrapping up and nearing the end, I heard one girl comment, "Isn't it crazy that we love our painting and are happy with it, but then we start looking around at other paintings and suddenly we don't think ours is very good anymore?" The other girl replied, "Yeah, I guess that's called human nature."

Hmmm...So much truth and sadness rolled up in that statement! Human nature does compare and robs us of joy and contentment. How quick we are to compare our bodies, our strengths and weaknesses, our homes, our families, and our lives to those around us. Suddenly, what made us so happy and content at one point, seems so dull after comparing to others. 

The other conversation I heard was one girl complaining and wishing her painting was as good as her friends. That friend said, "Hey, this is how I feel when we do sports...I'm never quite as good as you. My gift is art and yours is sports. It's okay that we're each different."

Hmmm...yet another nugget of truth taken from the mouth of a child! We are each different and it's not okay to compare because that often leads to envy and jealousy. Our culture wants us to find the dirt in one another, but we need to strive to find the gold. Instead, let's acknowledge each other's strengths and encourage one another!

Another observation I had while painting, was that I had trouble "stopping". 

It was hard to know when to be done. I wanted to add a little here and a little there! I felt like God was saying that's how it is with His creation--us! He's constantly molding us into His image, improving us. We are a constant work in progress that will one day be completed and presented before God! 

There is beauty in the process and we cannot rush the completion. It's also important not to become lukewarm and complacent. We need to constantly grow and challenge ourselves to live and be more Christlike.

The end of the evening was fun to get a final picture of the girls and their artwork. Each painting and each girl is uniquely beautiful! 

Nobody had trouble knowing which painting was hers. She knew each detail of the one she painted. God is the same towards you. 

He created you and loves you. 

He knows every detail of you and is proud of His creation! 

You are uniquely beautiful! 

You are God's masterpiece that He hasn't finished yet! 

Stop comparing yourself to those around you because God does not make any mistakes!

Perhaps this reminder has hit a little close to your heart. Have you been groaning at your gray hairs? Complaining about that weight gain? Wishing for a fulfilling life that your best friend seems to have? Constantly spending money on your home and wardrobe to look as good as your neighbor? Working long hours to get that promotion before your co-worker? 

Stop that comparing and just be who God made you to be!

 Psalm 139: 1-18:

You have searched me, Lord and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.     Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there;  if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,    for darkness is as light to you.    For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;    your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 
 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!  How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.