God of diversity

So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds, And God saw that it was good. Gen 1:25

Quiet fell over the house.  The kind of quietness that means only a few things in a home with littles.  Someone is sneaking a snack, allowing their inquisitive nature to experiment with things resulting in a colossal mess or someone is hanging from something that may lead to physical or mental scars if not for them then likely for me so a worry shuddered subtly in my spirit from the audible silence in the air quickening me into the next room to investigate.  Much to my delight, I found them not engrossed in a toilet paper to toilet challenge but instead lying on the floor coloring.  As I entered the room, each leapt to their feet beaming ear to ear showing off their masterpiece like it was the first-place prize at the Kentucky Derby.  On the floor, various coloring tools spanning across the spectrum laid scattered around more sheets with black outline images awaiting attention.  The creator of those sheets offers an invitation to the possessor of the tools to enhance the vision outlined on those pages, to bring a more vibrant fuller life picture to view.  Likewise, God has sketched a framework and given us each unique tools to contribute to the making of a fuller more vibrant life. 

In the beginning, God created differences.  The creation story highlights God’s desire for diversity.  He filled the earth with a rainbow of colors, sizes and shapes to color the landscape with plants, flowers and trees.  He filled the earth with fruits growing from trees or vines and vegetables growing on the ground or under it bursting with a variety of tastes.  Animals with pouches, fins, fur, short and long tails, gills, blow holes, snouts, hoofs, talons and paws to walk, hop, swim or crawl over the world further display His desire to create a world filled with differences to make a more exciting view just like the colors on those coloring pages.  He even filled the heavens with different planets, stars of various sizes, comets and asteroids.  In those differences, we get a deeper experience of life bursting with flavor and color.  Consider a world with only one shade of green or one type of flower as we looked out our windows.  How about a world with one type of apple or only one vegetable to fill our plates?  No thank you!  Differences enhance life! 

God made you special.  God’s desire for differences did not stop with the animals and vegetation.  It extended into our own creation.  Beyond the variations of our outward appearances, God created us each with different personalities, skills and talents.  His intent was for each of us to contribute a different hue, depth and flavor to His big picture; yet the devil uses it as fader for comparison.  Circumstantial evidence to challenge my quality of mothering.  I compare my mom style to other’s using it as a reason to wonder if I am good enough resulting in time spent and energy consumed attempting to emulate those around me.  Minimizing instead of improving upon what God has specifically built within me.  Well let me offer a bit of evidence to resolve some of this angst.  You are good!  It says so clearly in scripture.   In fact, it says “very good”!  Really!  Check it out in Gen 1:31 but more on that later.  No matter if you are the crock pot guru, meal planning aficionado, chef extraordinaire or drive thru queen when it comes to feeding your family, you are as God intended.  No need to apologize, compromise or scrutinize because your different hue with adding depth and character to the world, your child’s life and to your home so let us strive to be ourselves because no one else can.  What better way to teach such an important thing to our children but than to live it our ourselves?!

Things are not the same without you.  Rom 12:4-8 “For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, so we though many are one body in Christ”.  The body does not function the same without each of its parts in working order (Cor 12).  It also doesn’t function the same if one part is trying to do the job of another.  What if the stomach decided it wanted to be the brain?  We would live a life obsessed with being full instead of being productive or even forgetting to breath, keep the heart going or the myriad of other functions the brain does without actively thinking about it. 

What makes you different is what God wants you to use to add more beauty to your section of the world.  Therefore, we should strive to stop striving.  Stop striving to be what God did not create us to be.  That thing that does not come naturally to you might not be your thing but that thing that comes with ease or with a unique angle, that others sit back and say wow when you do it, that’s your gift!  That’s your lane!  Ride in it with pride and pizazz only you can provide.  Take for instance the bake sale.  Maybe every cookie that goes into the oven at your home comes out looking like a doorstop but you can make a mean sandwich then make the sandwiches that offer up the best finger licking sandwiches your hands can whip up as refreshments for guests or volunteers.  Maybe your cake will not be the feature cake for the bake sale but maybe your leadership skills or knack or your color-coded planning finesse can be used to run that bake sale.  If you’re the mom with the gift of gab, able to befriend the stranger in the grocery line then you are called to publicize the event for its eventual success and mom with the gift to draw, photograph, photoshop or clip art like no one has clipped art before then you are the one to create the fliers and other marketing materials for the event.  Maybe you have a heart to serve and be of service, the gift of hospitality, then you can help set up and usher costumers through the bake sale.  With everyone, doing the part for which they are equipped then that event will bless others directly and indirectly, internally and externally, visibly and invisibly exponentially in more ways than having tasks completed where the anointing, the gifting does not lie.  There is no need for envy or discouragement to enter into the hearts of any mom because there is a place for you to use the things, the tools God has given you for the accomplishment of the tasks He has designed. 

Focus on your personalized strengths to contribute to His grand plan.  Be whoever you are because it is as God intended for you to bless others and spread seeds for a harvest of God like proportions.  So stop trying to be the other mom and just be you in all its wonderful glory.  Besides, if you are being someone else then who is going to be you?

Sow the seed:  Your differences were uniquely designed and desired by God for your good and His glory.

Nurture the seed:  1 Cor 12: 4-6  Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.