I was 5 years old, in Kindergarten, when I really started to notice how different I was. I guess it didn’t help that I was JUST starting to get the hang of the English language, but I noticed how quickly and easily everyone befriended each other.
Everyone, but me…
As a child, I didn’t understand that it was because it was hard to communicate with me… I just thought it was because I didn’t have the same stuff they had.
Everyone had blonde hair, blue eyes… maybe even a sprinkle here and there of a gorgeous brunette or a cutie patootie freckled red-head. Everyone was unmistakably “normal”. Me? I had a homemade Asian bowl-cut hairstyle.
I was HONG-KONG-A-FIDE! (I don’t know what that means… just go with it)
It was about this time that “Show and Tell” was popular. Every little girl seemed to have a new Cabbage Patch Dolls.
Since I was already overly aware I didn’t fit in, my 5 year-old mind told me, “If you have a Cabbage Patch Doll, you’ll be like everyone else.”
I begged my parents. I mean BEGGED!!! But the same answer came out of their mouths as usual.
“We just don’t have the extra money.”
I was devastated. I hated being me.
Fast forward to first grade. It’s my birthday. HUGE package. ”I bet it’s more clothes.” I opened the package.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! It’s a Cabbage Patch Doll!!!” No… really… I screamed. I remember this.
I was FINALLY going to be “normal”. I was finally going to fit in and not feel so alone. I was finally like EVERYONE ELSE!!!
Imagine my devastation when I brought my little “ticket-to-normalcy” to school and discovered I was still the same me as the many days before. The one thing I was certain would make me somebody, only made me feel more like an absolute NOBODY. I was STILL the kid with the Hong Kong bowl-cut. I was still “not-the-norm”.
How often do I try harder than I need, to be “the norm” when what God’s desire is for me is to be genuinely, authentically ME?
Today… I’m grateful I am different. Today… I’m thankful my story is not like everyone else’s. I’m ecstatic that Brian & My Story isn’t going to be like everyone else’s. God didn’t create us to be “normal”… He created us to be UNIQUE and completely pleasing to Him.
Nothing I own defines me.
Nothing I know defines me.
No one I know defines me.
Only GOD defines me.
My Cabbage Patch Doll was a lie. A lie I believed would make me important, when what it really was… was an idol.
What’s YOUR Cabbage Patch Doll?
Are you ready to get rid of it with me?
