Lesson for the Week of 12/15/10

To Be Unique

by Tericia Eller

My freshman year in college, my roommate and I dyed black streaks in our hair. We did it totally on a whim one evening, but it had a really cool effect: people noticed me! I stood out in a crowd. I was different. I kept that black streak for 2 years. Finally, I decided that if I was going to be a high school English teacher, I probably should have hair all the same color. However, getting rid of that streak was not easy, I was emotionally attached and wondered to myself, “If I do not have a black streak, how will people notice me? What will make me special?” I had fallen prey the sin of narcissism. I was a Christian and had been all of my conscious life; however, I really did not KNOW the Lord as I should have. Now, 20 years later, I long to have a conversation with my 19 year-old-self. I want to tell her that there is nothing she can do on her own to be special. She is special to the LORD. He created her; knit her together in her mother’s womb. He knows her far more intimately than she even knows herself, and wants her whole heart! God wants her to live for Him and His Glory.

Unfortunately, I cannot turn back time. What I CAN do is make sure that my children, Nathan, Patricia and Sarah have more than just head knowledge of God and His truth. There were lessons God had to allow me to learn the hard way because He knew there would be 3 precious souls under my care needing Godly mothering. I want my children to have a heart knowledge of Him that draws them closer every day into a walk with Him. I want them to see themselves as He sees them, NOT as the world sees them. I want my children to know that God is a jealous God, who will not let them go, will never leave them nor forsake them. I desire for my children to embrace God’s truth and love the Lord their God with all there heart, soul, mind and strength far sooner in their lives than I did in mine. I want Jesus to make my children unique. I want the world to look at them and see Him.

Friend, what is it that you are afraid to let go of? What do you fear losing for fear you will not be unique; won’t stand out in a crowd? No matter how hard you try, you cannot fill that God-sized hole in your heart with anything other than God. The Lord God created you for a purpose; His purpose! He even sent His own son, Jesus Christ, to a painful and humiliating death on a cross to pay for the sins of the world. That includes YOU! Jesus paid the price so that you can know without a doubt you are saved. Do you know it? Do you want to? Ask Him in to your heart. He is waiting…………