Pots and Pans

For most of my life, I have been trying to fill in the following blanks:

I am a ______. (mother, wife, friend, writer, thinker) My gifts and talents are ______________. (organizing, leading, analyzing)

Recently, I asked my family and close friends the following question: "How would you describe me to a person who had never met me?" The answers were varied, and not always what I wanted to hear—but it helped me to have a better understanding of how others perceive me. My ideas of who I am and what I want to contribute are often different from public perception.

"The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us, not by what we are and what we do for Him." (Romans 12:3 MSG)

I don’t have to define who I am or worry about how others perceive me. It would be more relevant to recognize how God works through me.

God speaks, encourages, writes, organizes, cares, strengthens through me.

"Let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t." (Romans 12:4-6 MSG)

We are like pots and pans in God’s kitchen. He uses some of us like sauce pans for sautéing and others as stockpots for simmering. He made each of us for specific purposes. Just as we might use a stockpot to fry an egg if the saucepan is out of commission, God may occasionally use us for purposes outside His original design.

I must confess that I sometimes wish that God would use me in different ways. I sometimes envy the way my friends have been designed. I want to be more like them. I have good friends who are naturally giving, kind, patient, loving, humble, forgiving, serving, hospitable, generous, tolerant, graceful, gentle, soft-spoken, and compassionate. I consider these traits to be more feminine and likeable than my own traits. Yet, I am realizing that God has blessed me by placing these people in my life—to complement my weaknesses with their strengths. I am not meant to serve God alone, but with these others who were intentionally designed differently.