We’re not even playing. Today, we put up all our indoor Christmas decor. Trees, stockings, salt and pepper shakers, wreaths, crafts hand-made by kids, the whole shootin’ match. That’s right. Our family loves Christmas. PR31 has been watching Christmas movies on Hallmark Channel since Friday.
And today, as we got out the decorations and put them up, we listened to classic Christmas music and watched two of our favorite Christmas movies… North Pole and Elf. Now, I have to admit, Elf may be my personal favorite when it comes to Christmas movies. I laugh all the way through and almost cry at the end. There are so many great life lessons from the movie. And so tonight I’m going to share one of them…
Don’t compare yourself, but instead recognize that you have your own set of gifts, talents and abilities which makes you special.
We find this in the movie when Buddy the Elf falls behind making Etch-A-Sketches and Mae-Mae the supervisor elf tries to help him not feel bad about not being able to keep up. He says, “No, Buddy, you’re not a cotton-headed ninny muggins. We all just have different talents. That’s all.”
Buddy disagrees and says that it seems like everyone else’s skills are the same, but all the elves give him examples of how his special skills make all their lives better even though he is different. It takes the whole movie for Buddy to learn that no one has the ability to stir Christmas spirit in others like him.
We’re not so different from Buddy sometimes. We wish that we were more like others… able to do the things they can do. We don’t see our own special skills and talents and abilities. We don’t see how our uniqueness makes us special.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. The Apostle Paul had to tell people nearly 2,000 years ago that God has given each of us a special gift, and that others need us to use that giftedness to make their lives better.
So, no matter what name you may call yourself because you don’t feel you match up to those around you, remember that those people you are comparing yourself to probably wish they could be like you and do what you do. Just be yourself, and do what you do.
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