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PROGRAM D-7966

Do you ever wish you could be someone else? I imagine all of us have wished we could change ourselves or our lives in some way—at some time.

I remember after my freshman year in college, I tried very hard to change my personality and be like I thought a young woman should be. I was trying to copy another girl in my college who seemed to be everything I wasn’t; I thought surely that was how I should be. I truly tried to change, but I couldn’t keep it up. Instead of coming across like this other girl, I came across as phony and aloof. I remember feeling very discouraged as I realized I was stuck with who I was, like it or not.

I suppose we’ve all been through similar experiences—when we’ve tried to change our personalities and be like someone else instead of being ourselves. Could it be that you are unhappy with who you are and find yourself wanting to be like someone else? Maybe, like me, you’ve tried to change your personality and have found it doesn’t seem to 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 means you would have created yourself differently if you’d had a choice. It demonstrates a lack of trust in God’s wisdom. Finally, it says you think God was either wrong or cruel to make you the way you are.

I want to encourage you to remember 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. You are God’s canvas! Scripture tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, that God knit us together in our mother’s womb, that he is intimately acquainted with us down to counting the hairs on our heads, and we are each created in his image.

Let me remind you that you are God’s canvas and he is an amazing artist! You are his masterpiece, and you don’t have to be anyone else in order to be who God created you to be. Yes, I’m aware that he hasn’t finished his artistic work in you yet—there are still some improvements to be made. However, he has chosen the canvas—you—and he is forming you into the image of Jesus Christ!