Labels...

We all have them, whether we wanted them or not: Labels. Somewhere along the line of life you stumbled on, earned, or have taken on a label. What does yours say? There are some labels that are most coveted depending on your age and stage. "Pretty" "Smart" "Popular" "Successful" "Handsome" Then there are those labels which you despise. "Geek" "Loser" "Vain" "Conceited" and the list goes on and on and on. These labels can attach themselves so early on in life that a child doesn't even stand a chance of figuring out who he truly is because of what he or someone else has thought (whether accurate or not)...thus a label is born.

After talking about this topic with a few people today, it got me thinking. What is my label? I have had many disparaging labels attached to me throughout the years - "Sarcastic" (which we know is just a nice way of saying you're mean, funny, but mean) "Opinionated" (again another 'nice' way of saying stubborn) "Fat/Ugly" - I don't know many females that haven't struggled with that one. The list goes on. Some labels can be positive and can spur us on to achieve greatness, others are a toxin that paralyze us. The reality is there is only one label that should matter...one label that trumps them all - the label that you belong to HIM. That you are a child of GOD. If you truly believe that - then all other labels fade away.

I read the Max Lucado Storybook called "You Are Special" to Olivia for the first time the other day. It is BEAUTIFUL reflection of labels, and placing value in the Creator and not in the created. Here is a synopsis. Eli the carpenter creates wooden toys called Wemmicks. The Wemmicks would give each other stickers - stars for being 'good' or 'beautiful' and grey dots for for being 'chipped' or 'scratched.' One day a little toy named Puncinello meets Eli - and his world changes...

Eli to Punchinello - "I don't care what the other Wemmicks think, and you shouldn't either. Who are they to give stars or dots? They're Wemmicks just like you. What they think doesn't matter Puncinello. All that matter is what I think. And I think you are pretty special...the stickers only stick if they matter to you. The more you trust my love, the less you care about their stickers. You are special because I made you, and I don't make mistakes." Max Lucado

God - the creator of the universe - calls us HIS own. If you believe that God is who He says He is, and that you are HIS then everything changes. For the same God who spun this world into motion with just a word, is the same God who created the intricasies of our human anatomy and physiology from mere dust, is the same God that created you and me! He knows us, and what our Creator thinks of us should mean more to us than what other 'creations' think of us. Why do we put so much value on other people's opinions of us? After-all, they are not the creator but the created. I encourage you to rid yourself of labels - all but one - the label of being cherised by the CREATOR.

Gracie taught me so much about not looking at the obvious labels that people try to convey. She challenged me to look deeper, beyond the exterior facade and to the heart. God doesn't make mistakes. Gracie was exactly how she was meant to be - and she was filled with His glory - for she was HIS. How I long to have the sweet communion with my maker as Gracie did. Her countenance shone of His love. I want my children to know that they will never be defined by what others think of them. They are and will always be beautiful, valued and cherished creations of the Creator.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13