In society today, majority does not strive to be different or stand out, we strive to fit in and be normal. Kid’s in school get bullied for not being “normal”. Some families look down upon their children or relatives for not doing the “normal” thing and attending college. Girls look to magazines and celebrities to keep up with the current “norms”. We try to meet the worlds unspoken expectation of appearance because that’s what determines our worth. We have placed a standard on life that expects us to strive to be “normal”.
Normal
Adjective
1. conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.
We all try to conform to the worlds perspective of normal, but is that what God calls us to grow towards? Did he create us all individually to simply be “normal” and usual?
It’s too easy to just compare ourselves to each other and knit pick every tiny rough edge we hate about ourselves. We have been brought up in a world full of norms and comparison so does that mean we should turn down the path traveled way too often and do the same? That’s just the “normal” thing to do right?
Wrong. This is not how God intended us to live. This is something that I’ve been learning and has been laying heavily on my heart. We all know that God crafted us with His own hands and created us in His own image, but we tend to take that so softly. We use it more as a fluffy beautiful saying, but this is truth. God created the earth with the thought of us in His mind. He created everything with YOU in on His mind. How crazy is that? God knew about each and everyone of us before creation at all. He’s so internal. He took time to sculpt mankind individually and all diversely in His image.
So, the question is if God created us in His image why do we continually pick out flaws in ourselves that we wish we could change? If we believe that He is perfection, why would we not believe ourselves to be beautifully perfected in our differences? We are made godlike, reflecting God’s nature. Also, if we believe that we are made in His image, we should not strive to simply fit in. We should be letting our differences shine because we were all given a piece of the the Fathers heart to pass on to others around us.
If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.
-2 Corinthians 5:13
With this, God wants us to stand out. If we are striving to just simply be “normal”, it’s only for ourselves and our earthy desires.
He created us with intentionality, so when we look in the mirror we shouldn’t say “if only I looked like…”, we should be saying “wow, God is amazing and so am I because I’m made in His image”.
Just a thought, if God created all the beautiful trees and mountains and the Magnificent animals, none like another. All completely different in wild ways, then why do we who are made I’m our perfect Father’s image, strive to change ourselves to be normal instead of striving to be more Godlike? All of creation is made beautifully different by the Father and we as humans are not excluded from that. We are by no means perfect, but we need to be confident in our diversity! We all carry a piece of the Lord’s heart and we will never be able to share our piece while we are also trying to hide it. It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to not be normal. Christians aren’t suppose to be typical or ordinary. If anything, we should want others to see something that is special within us because we carry the Lord’s image.
