Playdough and the Holy Spirit

The past ten days I haven't left my house much.  I was busy with my almost three year old granddaughter who stayed with us while my daughter and son-in-law went on a glorious vacation to Cabo San Lucas.

Here, the weather was not so glorious, lol.  It was cold and windy.  The "warmer" days were rainy.  Add to that widespread influenza and stomach bug and you've got a recipe for lots of at-home activities. 

But Mimi was prepared with crafts, reusable sticker books, coloring books, crayons, hot wheels race track AND PLAYPAL!!  Translation Playdough.  lol.

Lexi LOVES Playdough!  We must've played with Playdough for hours and hours!  This incentive chart right here filled with stars earned her a Playdough cupcake maker!

Lexi proudly displaying her "cupcakes".  <3

Lexi's second favorite activity was making paper bag puppets.  I found a wonderful boxed set that contained five individual bags with everything you need to make each puppet.  There was an elephant, a cow, a frog, a chicken and a lion.

I confess that I struggled with guiding Lexi to make her puppet "like the sample picture".  But I was good and restrained myself and let her do it all herself.  And look at what a good job she did!!

 If I'm being totally honest here, I needed to use restraint when it came to the Playdough as well, wanting to keep the colors separate.  Suffice it to say I was good with that too as we now have tie-die Playdough.  lol.

And it was worth it!  To see the joy on her face with each new creation.  Creations she had ownership over to do with as she pleased.  With each puppet, she placed the stickers in her own orderly fashion, and with her Playdough cupcakes, she chose the colors and the shapes.

But now, O LORD, you are our Father; 

we are the clay, and you are our potter; 

we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

When God created us, He did so in His own orderly fashion, according to His perfect will and plan for our lives.  And when He was finished, I imagine He held each one of us up and said...

For this is my masterpiece which I created anew in Christ Jesus, so (insert name) can do the good things I planned for her/him long ago.

With our spots and tie-die streaks, we are God's masterpiece!

So why do we try to change to be like "Sally" OR worse yet, why do we try to change "Billy" to be the way WE want him?

In so doing, we are no different than my impulse of wanting Lexi to follow the puppet sample picture to make a "cookie-cutter" puppet or wanting her to create her Playdough cupcakes without mixing the colors.

How dare I/we try to change God's masterpieces.  He is Creator God.  There is NOO way WE can improve upon God's design for ourselves OR others.  It isn't up to us!  God works in each person's life in His own timing and His own way.   He will add the brush strokes here and there as He sees fit.

In Anne Graham Lotz devotion from Fixing My Eyes on Jesus, she said that her mom gave her great advice regarding her relationship with her husband.  She told Anne that "it was her job to make her husband happy and it was the Holy Spirit's job to make him good."  Anne closed the devotional by stating "What a relief!  I'm not responsible to make others good.  I don't have to judge others as to whether they're good or bad.  I'm free to just love and enjoy them.  So lets stop nagging and start praying!"

May we all trust in Creator God for our own lives and the lives of others.

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