Differences

This past weekend our daughter was home for the weekend. She came home to go to a friend’s concert, do laundry and shop. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It was such a great little visit. I love that her school is only two hours away.

Driving her back, we had this conversation about intelligence. She’s been doing quite well in school and Tom says she takes after me. Granted I did have good grades in school, but I studied and worked at it. As proof of my intelligence, he mentioned my average in senior year (98). In my junior year when we were dating I did tutor him in trigonometry, but it’s not because I was smarter than him. I pointed out the fact that he didn’t apply himself. He is a very intelligent man. He just chose to play stick ball with his brothers rather than go to class at times. If he knew then what he knows now, then he would have been a straight A student.

My kids didn’t have any trouble with their abilities to learn. I’m truly grateful. If they did, I would have adapted to help them do their best. Report card time I would tell them: A’s are awesome, B’s are beautiful, C’s are could do better, D’s are don’t go there and F’s are forget about it you will never see the light of day until that grade comes up. They were both capable of doing better than D’s and F’s.

I have always encouraged them to do their best realizing that each child is different and their approach to learning was different. I didn’t compare one to another because I didn’t like that when I was a kid. I knew what they were capable of and encouraged them to do better than that. I’m very proud of my children and what they accomplished thus far. They are hard workers and my heart is pleased that they are pursuing their dreams. They have many characteristics of both Tom and I.

If I’m proud of my children and want them to succeed, how much more does the Father in heaven want me to succeed in what I do? I know He doesn’t compare one of His kids to another. Why do we compare our gifts and talents to others? We are all different. How we learn is different. How we teach is different. How we worship is different. How we walk out our faith is different. Different isn’t bad it’s just…different. It’s what makes the world go round. Life would be boring if we were all the same. Let’s embrace the differences we see in each other, like we embrace the differences in our children. I leave you with this scripture from 1 Corinthians 12:12-20:

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Artwork by Oscar Basurtow