Play

PROGRAM D-8046

Did you ever wish you could change your whole personality and be like someone else? I think most of us have had the notion that if we were a different type of person, we’d be much better off. This week I want to talk about the serious mistake we make when we try to be someone we are not.

The summer after my freshman year in college, I thought I had the perfect opportunity to be someone else. I was going to be a counselor at a Christian camp where no one knew me, so I decided that instead of being the outgoing, assertive, take-charge type that I had been all my life, I would become the quiet, reserved, “sweet” type of person like a girl in my dorm at college. You see, it seemed to me that her type of personality was nicer and better liked than mine, so I decided to be like her.

I can still remember those first few days at camp, as I concentrated so hard on being someone else. I had to think about it all the time so that I would remember to be different. Mostly I just forced myself to be quiet, and instead of impressing people with how nice I was, they thought I was unfriendly. I really tried hard to be just like my school friend, but let me tell you, I failed miserably. I could only keep it up a few short days. I had to face the fact that I was stuck with who I was.

Could it be that you are unhappy with who you are, and you find yourself wanting to be like someone else? Maybe, like me, you’ve tried to change your personality and found it doesn’t work.

Did you ever stop and think about what it really means when you try to be like someone else? It means you think God made a mistake in the way he made you. It demonstrates a lack of trust in God’s wisdom. It says you think God was either wrong or cruel to make you the way you are.

I want to encourage you today to know that you are unique; there’s no one else like you in the whole world! God is so infinitely creative that he’s able to give each of us unique traits and personalities, and he has designed you to be yourself. He wants your personality and your type to meet a certain need in the Kingdom of God.

That’s good news—wonderful news! You don’t have to be anyone else in order to be worthwhile, effective, and happy. You can have great joy by just being who you are!