Costumes

My family and I don’t celebrate Halloween or anything like that, but we (us kids) like to put on a costume and go around getting free candy. I mean, who wouldn’t? 

Our parents started letting us go once we moved to where we are now. We’ve been trick or treating for 4 years, which means I’ve dressed up four times.

Two years in a row I was Rey from Star Wars, then, trying to figure out my costume in a rush, I just put on my softball stuff and went as a softball player, and this year I was Katniss from the Hunger Games.

On Halloween, once I’d get my costume on, I’d look in the mirror and think, I don’t look like Rey. My hair, my outfit – sure, it was similar, but I didn’t look like her.

This year: My hair isn’t as long as Katniss’s, my hair isn’t as dark as Katniss’s, and on and on. I did my best to wear clothes like her and dress like her, but I was not her.

Thinking back, I’ve realized something: I can try all I want to wear clothes like Katniss and Rey and try to do my hair like them, but I’ll never be them. Rey is Rey. Katniss is Katniss. They are them. I am me. 

Maybe there’s that one person you know who you just really wish you could have their hair. Their smile. Her/his _____ (fill in the blank). 

But listen up: 

God didn’t create you to be them. He created you to be you. They are them. You are you. So be you. You will never be them, no matter how hard you try, because you aren’t meant to be them.

God created you to be you. You are the only you there is. He didn’t create you to be Katniss Everdeen, that girl from school, that guy on the basketball team. He created you to be you. 

Your smile, hair, looks, personality, characteristics, skills – no one else is you. You are the only you there is, because God needed you on this earth for a reason.

Sometimes we’ll put on costumes – ok, maybe we won’t dress up like it’s Halloween, but we’ll try to be something that we’re not. Maybe, for you, you wear clothes that aren’t really your style, but you wear them anyway to try to get in the “in crowd” at school. Or maybe you do really wacky stuff just in an attempt to try to get that one girl to like you. I don’t know what your costume is for you, but – whatever it is – know that you don’t have to put on a costume to be accepted, loved, or whatever the reason may be. Jesus loved you enough to die for you, okay? You don’t need a guy or girl to like you to know that you’re worthy.

So stop wearing costumes. Because God created us the way we are for a reason, and he’s got some great plans for you. But you need to be you in order for his plan for you to work out. His purpose for you isn’t the same purpose as someone else’s. 

I don’t know if it’s hard for you to be you or not, but know this:

Just be you, because God created you the way you are for a reason.