Today I am delighted to welcome back the wonderful Hannah Pirc! I hope that you enjoy her article! 🙂 (Also, I realize that this article is a day late, but I’m going to blame my doctor’s appointment yesterday. 😉 )

Tears stung my eyes as it happened once again.

As I sat silently in my chair while a family friend made an unintentional thoughtless comment, the thought came in waves –

I’m tired of being different.

Whether it’s saying no to an activity that I feel is wrong, not yet driving because I was in a car accident and am nervous to get behind the wheel, or bringing my own food because of food allergies, sometimes I just want to be “normal.”

But over the past few weeks, the Lord has really been speaking to me about being different… And how it is actually ok. Here are a few things I have been thinking about these past couple weeks:

1. It’s actually ok to be different

Remember the sugar cookie days? Cookie cutters, gooey frosting, pink, yellow, and blue sprinkles that looked so fun, sweet…Yah, I’ll stop there. 😀

I remember making sugar cookies, and I loved it when we would pull out the cookie cutters and cut away!

I don’t know about you, but when I would do cookie cutters, I loved the cookies to pretty much be all different – a hippo, a heart, a flower. I didn’t usually use the same cutter much. That was the fun of sugar cookies!

Can you imagine if we were all made from the same cookie cutter? We all looked the same, talked the same, ate the same, shopped the same, etc? The world would be a pretty boring place!

Now, in all seriousness, God made us different to complement each other. You have gifts I don’t have, and I have gifts that I can use to impact others. We don’t have to be the same as everyone else. It’s ok to be different!

And when it comes to our Christian walk, we are called to be different from the world. We are called to make the hard choices and follow God’s ways. And He has blessings for choosing to be different.

2. “Normal” isn’t all it’s chalked up to be

Sometimes I want to be “normal” in the foods I eat. You know – like eat regular breakfast food, not have to worry about food allergy contamination, and snack on a big container of fast-food french fries.

But then I hear about a food poisoning outbreak at a local restaurant, or the amount of chemicals in a dessert cookie, and I start to think “different” isn’t so bad.

I like how Patsy Clairmont put it: “Normal is just a setting on your dryer.” 😀

In all earnestness, what truly is normal? Who sets the standard for normal?

If it’s the world, then we’re going to be chasing after the ever-changing, immeasurable “normal”, instead of pursuing our Savior with our whole heart.

But if it is God Who sets normal, then we have nothing to worry about. God made each of us the way we are, and wants us to be content with who we are, not comparing ourselves to others. Which leads us to…

3. God made you to be you!

I am reminded of a scene in the God’s Not Dead movie, where Pastor Dave asks Mina, (paraphrased), “Is God capable of making mistakes, errors, or flawed decisions? And if He made you…”

God made you to be you! He made each of us unique, with skills necessary for our individual callings. With interests that He knows we will enjoy. With a personality that’s just right for us. And He allows the struggles we face to strengthen us.

We have such a tendency to compare – to see if we measure up to the normal around us. But God calls us to be us, not everyone else. He looks at us as His masterpiece, His work in the making.

We are His.

So the next time you feel different, remember: it’s ok.

Hannah Pirc is a young writer who loves spending time with her Lord and Savior, hanging out with family and friends, punctuating with emoji’s, trying out new recipes that are allergy-friendly, playing and teaching piano, and leading a BRIGHT Lights group. She also writes for Th!nk Magazine and her blog, growinginhisgraceblog.weebly.com.