Category: Self-image

The Purple Hippopotamus and Other Crazy Labels

Charlotte BurkholderLeave a comment

Do you have a label? Have you labeled yourself, or are you living out a label someone else has placed on you? I love to read “You Are Special,” by Max Lucado, to my grandchildren. Lucia knows who she is and is unaffected by labels, unlike all the other Wemmicks who are laboring under gray dots or pridefully wearing gold stars. Poor Punchinello is covered with gray dots and gathering more every day. He is miserable, but he doesn’t have to be.

Like two brothers who were, at the moment, not expressing brotherly love. Angry words were piercing little hearts. The older calls the younger a purple hippopotamus and makes him cry. But he is still a cute little boy without a smidgen of purple hippopotamus in him. If he had believed that, instead of his brother’s label, he could have skipped happily off to play. He would have known that calling him a purple hippopotamus did not make him one, any more than calling a garage a car makes it a car. False words hurt, but they do not define.

What other people say about you does not define you. What you may think about yourself does not necessarily define you. Your circumstances do not define you either. Kimberly has lyme disease, but she is not a Lyme victim. She is a productive child of God, a loving wife and mother, and much-loved dance instructor to a class of two-year-olds.

Know who you are created to be. Then you can live free, collecting neither dots nor stars, free to be who the Master designed you to be–His own. You will never need to conform to or be condemned by any other label.

Be joyful in that!

Charlotte

Link: godinlifesmoments.com
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AM I THE ONLY ONE LIKE THIS?

Charlotte BurkholderLeave a comment

November 16, 2024

Sometimes one feels less important simply because they are different. My sweet friend from England feels her accent is detrimental to her fitting in with all the rest.

One beautiful fall sunny day, a large pot of maroon mums caught my eye. I paused to admire their beauty. It must have been, at least, a hundred mums. But what really created the most attention was a miniature mum near the base of the other mums. It was bright yellow!! It didn’t look like the others, except that it was a mum. Maybe it thought it didn’t fit in. On the contrary, it added so much to the beauty of the bunch. It made the whole bouquet quite unique.

Comparing yourself with others is not a good thing. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:12 CEV that it is not wise to compare yourself with others. Whether you compare yourself with someone you think is better than you, or you compare yourself and think you are better than others, both are a foolish and ignorant way to think.

Comparison robs you of the joy of living and enjoying who you are. What does it matter, if you are the shortest person in the room? Why would I envy the one who creates beautiful art, when the best I can do is draw a stick man or woman. What about introverts who admire outgoing people with bubbly personalities. I may be the only one of my friends who can’t do math in my head. Instead of feeling bad about that, I’ll focus on things I am good at. We are all human beings. We all have our differences. What a drab world this would be if we were all the same. Together we can make a colorful world.

Each human being is created in God’s image making them valuable beyond measure. Each one has unique characteristics and different personalities. Only God could make that happen! And He loves you just like He made you and will receive glory from your life as you give it back to Him.

Today, thank God for who you are and who He made you to be.

Charlotte