Be who God has created you to be
It’s funny how you appreciate different things at different stages in your life. One of the things I have learned to appreciate very much is the sound of birds in the spring. This is something I never paid attention to when I was younger, but as I get older, I enjoy them more and more. It reminds me that winter is over and a new season is upon us as they sing their cheery songs.
A bird that has been intriguing to me the past few years is the mockingbird. We have had several around our house, and it is a bird that, if I was ever exposed to previously, I didn’t notice.
It seems like Mrs. Mockingbird waits for me to come outside so she can show off and sing me all her beautiful songs. It amazes me how she just rattles off one bird call after the next for several minutes at a time, and I love to hear it.
I am by no means a bird expert and have not researched the mockingbird, so please humor me as I share what comes to my mind as I observe the peculiar bird. I have to wonder if the mockingbird doesn’t like who it is and is going through an identity crisis, trying hard to be like all the other birds with their calls.
Is it like so many people who want to be like everyone else because they don’t think they are good enough the way they are and who God has made them to be?
I think this can apply to the area of our personalities, appearances, careers and in our spiritual callings. God has made us all different and unique, and that is a wonderful thing.
If you don’t know already, I have red hair and freckles, although the freckles aren’t as noticeable as they used to be. Growing up, I despised both my hair and my freckles. I even remember rubbing “August dew” on my freckles because someone said that made them go away.
My mom told me it made me special to be different, but I didn’t want to be different. I just wanted to be like everyone else. I didn’t like standing out with my red hair, getting called “red” and looking like a bad version of Little Orphan Annie.
But now I am thankful for my hair because I know it is how God made me, and I have come to appreciate it, not despise it. In fact I don’t even really think much about it anymore except for the gray and white hairs that are trying to take over and destroy my natural color.
First Corinthians 7:17 says, “But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk.”
The Lord has a specific calling on each of our lives, and that is unique to us. We are to walk and live as God called us to be with the desires he has put on our hearts, not others. He has called us to be who he has made us to be, and we should not try to emulate someone else’s unique gift or personality, nor should we be jealous of them either.
Each person’s calling and personality is different, and too often we can look at others and the gifts they have been given and become envious of them while resentful of ourselves. Some people’s assignments may seem more significant than others, but all are important.
First Corinthians 12:15-21 and 27 says, "If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you;' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."
There is only one you. If you are unsure of your calling, ask God to put his desires in your heart as to what you are to do. He is ready for you to ask so he can show you his perfect plans for you.