No matter where you go, one thing is certain--people are very different. I like to people watch, especially at airports. Every kind of shape, size, nationality and culture is there. I can't help but be fascinated, wondering what people do or where they are headed and why. God made every one of us in a very particular way.
I've come to accept the fact that God knows a whole lot more than we do about why He put us together the way He did.
I sure would 've liked to have been six feet four instead of five feet eight and have a full head of hair instead of a few remaining hairs. I was "blessed" to have five baby teeth that didn't have any permanent ones under them. I still have one holding on today. God even gave me a nice gap in the front of my teeth (think David Letterman). One of the funniest things I've experienced in my life is a poster I saw of myself in Monterrey, Mexico.
The poster was promoting an event I was speaking at. It had nice picture of me, the one we provided. But there was something different about this picture. They had Photoshopped my gap! There I was, smiling, with a beautiful set of teeth with no front gap.
Why? I don't know. But I do know this: "If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise."" (Goethe). Dare to be what you are. Resolve to be yourself. A Congolese proverb asserts, "Wood mat remain ten years in the water, but it will neve become a crocodile." The Bible asks, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" (Jeremiah 13:23 ESV). "Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are," Julius Hare advised.
"My mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll become a general. If you become a monk, you'll end up as the pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso," the great painter said. No one ever became great by imitation. Don't be a copy of something. Make your own impression.
"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." Carl Rogers said. Worn-out paths are for worn-out men. Friedrich Klopstock remarked, "He who has no opinion of his own, but depends on the opinion and taste of others is a slave. To only dream of the person you are supposed to be is to waste the person you are. " Nobody is so disappointed and so unhappy as the person who longs all of the life to be somebody other than who they really are.
Those who trim themselves to suit everybody will soon whittle themselves away. If you don't have a plan for your own life you'll only become a part of someone else's. You can't carry two faces under one hat. Never wish to be anything but what you are. "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." Andre Gide said.
"All the discontented people I know are trying sedulously to be something they are not, to do something they cannot do," David Grayson commented. When you will not dare to be yourself, you will lack confidence.
"Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in His image. Each is more precious than all," Andre Gide reflected. "All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.," John Mills said. There is only one life for each of us--our own. The person who walks in another's track never leaves their own footprints. Doris Mortman observed, "Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have." Most of our challenges in life come from not knowing ourselves and ignoring our best, real virtues.
Most people live their entire lives as complete strangers to themselves. Don't let that happen to you. Leo Buscaglia counseled, "The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position." The opposite of courage is not fear. It is conformity. The most exhausting and frustrating thing in life is to live it trying to be someone else.
(Note: Jason Mason is one of my favorite authors and I thought of sharing you guys how life changing his articles are. Hope you enjoy it.)