Just Who You Need to Be

Have you ever seen a large dog try to squeeze their way into a bed made for a much smaller animal? It’s quite comical to watch them try to push their way in, only to fall out once more. My puppy, a Mastiff, is a rather large breed. She is not a year old and already taller than me when she stands on her back legs. Our older dog is much, much smaller Maltese – about the size of the puppy’s head. As I watched the puppy try desperately to sleep in her sister’s dog bed, I had to laugh. She looked ridiculous when she finally plopped over exhausted with just her head in the older dog’s bed. I wonder how often we do that. We push, cram, and attempt to force our life to fit into the mold obviously meant for another. We forget that we were made to be us and not the person next to us.

Isaiah 64:8 says, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” I love this image – a father lovingly bending over a potter’s wheel to shape his creation into life. We were made with such care and purpose and yet we often deny who we are in our attempts to be someone else. It reminds me of Romans 9:20-21, “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” There is no shame being the best “You” you can be. Whether God made you for “noble purposes” or “common use”, your life is so important that He took His time to shape you and mold you on purpose. Don’t ever be ashamed to be who you are. When we accept that God created us to be a Mastiff and stop trying to do the things a Maltese does, we will begin to see the beauty in God’s design.

(Written by Keegan Harkins.)