If you feel too odd or different perhaps you should think about toads in their weird bumpy bodies or snakes with their odd hissing voices. Yet, I have never heard anyone trying to coax a toad to become smoother or redder or more like an ox.
At our youth campout this past summer, I was reminded that many of us struggle with feeling "less than" at times.
We are too shy, or too loud, not good enough at volleyball, or simply different and out of place. Some of us go home and tear our hair out worrying about our actions and if they were correct or good enough.
This morning I invented a new colour. I don't know how it looks yet but I know it's name. ACROMENA. Interestingly, when I went to look it up online, I realized it is actually a female name. It is rare, since I only came across two entries, but one of them titled a twitter account owned by a woman from Libya. I smiled when I read her caption. "My beauty makes me special." Now I realize this may have been focused solely on outward beauty, however, I do believe we would do well to rejoice in and rest in who God made us to be. If He made you with brown hair, He willed it so. If He gave you a quiet personality, He needed it. If He left you with poor volleyball skills in exchange for a gift with words, He had that in mind.
And so, let me introduce to you:
ACROMENA
When everyone else is blue or green and you are acromena,
Tip back your head and talk to God who made you something special.
If you are certain that He's wrong and surely pink is right,
Remember that He knows you best and made you simply right.
He needs a couple, faithful few, who stand and make a difference.
If you were simply gray or black, you'd blend in with the others.
Perhaps God really got it wrong when He made your odd colour.
You think that yellow, orange, and tan are how folks ought to travel.
Not odd and weird and strange and less, like you in acromena.
Surely there's a different way than this bizarre arena.
So if you still believe that you, are simply so peculiar,
That you are doomed for pessimistic tendencies forever,
I beg you go and ask the One who made you slightly different
And you will find He picked your colour specially, acromena.
😅 A strange ditty to make a point. You are special and designed just so. Never let Satan, anyone else, or yourself tell you differently.
"I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalm 139:14
As a side note, I have thought about this a little and wondered why we expect everyone to fit a certain "code", act a certain way, or live up to a certain status. I believe most places and cultures have this expectation to some degree. There is an understood method of behavior or way of doing life that must be adhered to in order to fit in or for everyone to move along smoothly.
I believe this can be well and good until those who are different are socially exiled. They act awkwardly, say things at the wrong times and do the opposite of what we think is proper. What do we do with this?
I believe there are a few ways we can respond to these intrusions. One, we can look down our long noses in disgust and chatter ferociously about the person to others. Or, we can ignore them completely and give them a solid cold shoulder so that they realize what an awkward and unruly soul they are. Another option would be to talk with them and try desperately to make them like the norm. Or, the last one could be to actually accept them. Yes, just accept them. Exactly like they are, exactly with their oddities, exactly with the things that make us uncomfortable.
Let their odd colours add to your rainbow. (It might be missing a colour.) Let their different habits compliment or sometimes even adjust yours.
Every person on planet earth can teach us something if we are only willing to look beyond ourselves and see "different" as beautiful.
Perhaps we ought to go back to our places and live in the colour God made us.
Fare well ACROMENA.
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