The Ultimate Shaper....!

Found this from our good friends at CS and thought you guys would enjoy!

THE ULTIMATE SHAPER:

How crazy would it be if someone laid out a beautiful longboard next to a high performance shortboard and started evaluating the longboard based on the shortboard? "Look at this nose...it's all rounded off and there's just not enough rocker," they would say. "Only one fin? Where are the other two (like this shortboard)?" It would be ridiculous. Because the shortboard isn't the standard by which a longboard should be evaluated. Rather the longboard should be assessed in comparison to the blueprint that the shaper had in mind when making it.


But, girls open magazines regularly and measure themselves by someone else's appearance. Men look at other men and assess their career success or financial stability. The examples go on and on. The problem is, other people aren't the standard for who I am. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 10:12 in the Bible says, "...they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!" (NLT)


The standard is what God had in mind when HE made each of us. In Psalm 139 it states, "Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God-you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration-what a creation! " (the Message). In another version it says that God "knit" us together. He gave attention to detail.


The point? Just as it would be silly to complain that you can't nose ride a 5'6" thruster, it is silly to continually compare ourselves to others. Each of us was designed to bring glory to God in a unique fashion by living out who He shaped us to be, not by trying to be a carbon copy of someone else (in looks, abilities, attitudes or actions). So take time today to marvel at who HE made you. And next week we'll talk about how He is growing you into the person He purposed you to be.