THERE WILL BE ONLY ONE YOU

My niece sighed “Why can’t I be like her – so smart, so chic, so accomplished.” Curiosity nudged me to look out the window to see what she meant. I was visiting my stepbrother that particular day. True enough, the young vibrant girl walking past our house was all that and more. She exuded confidence and seemed to possess an inner glow that made her even more attractive -- I knew her, the eldest of five children , a neighbor and my brother's longtime friend (and mine, too) living 'bout three houses away from us. I glanced back at my niece and saw how she felt so insecure and inadequate compared to the ‘beauty’ walking past our house on her way to work that particular morning.

You know, whenever I hear young kids think or talk or whine in ‘that’ manner, my first urge is to give that person a good kick in the butt! Lolz something he would deserve because I really don't buy it -- this feeling of 'good-for-nothing' from anyone, so much more with young people. But of course this doesn’t really do the trick jolting a person back to his rightful senses, in this case my niece, it needs something more. Well, I just can’t sit back and let this young girl fry with ‘envy’ or with some sort of ‘insecurity’ gnawing at her from within. So I began my ‘blitz’ lolz. :-)) “Come into the kitchen, Yna, and let’s have ourselves a nice warm cup of coffee.” Reluctantly she followed me into the kitchen sensing that something was going to brew other than coffee. Well, she got that right. Here I come!

At the small breakfast table and quietly sipping our coffee, I began…..

She is undoubtedly everything you think she is but… she didn’t get there so easy. Neither was it offered to her on a golden spoon. No, because she had ‘worked’ at it. I know her and her family, saw how she shaped ‘things’ with a lot of hard work through those difficult years. What you see now is simply her just reward --- reaping the fruits of her labor.

But you can do it too. You are well-equipped to become whatever you want to be in life. You can achieve your own success with your own ‘bag of tools’ which God saw fit for you to have when you were born. Every person is imbued with talent and abilities by an all-knowing God who knows our needs and desires in the heart. Your continuing education starting from the early years of grade school to college have all been an effort in trying to draw it out from you, bring it out to the fore, too harness or process your ‘talent’ to make it usable, serviceable, and useful when you set out on your own out there in the big wide world someday.

All that preparation is necessary because, among other things, you need to discover yourself first --- who you are in the order of God’s creation, what gifts you have, what you can do with your personal ‘bag of tools’ and last but not least, how to use it wisely and intelligently in life. You must know there is only one of you. You are distinct and unique. There is no one else like you. Your talents and abilities are uniquely and distinctly your own. How you use these will determine what or who you are and what you will become someday. Use these to make your dreams come true. Waste not precious time wishing you were somebody else.

There will be only one you -- just one you. So make it count, make it matter, make it the best. Never mind if that’s going to take all of your life doing – do it just the same because God meant for it that way.

You might want to give this a thought, too --- that the very talent and abilities which will certainly take you to your dreams and ambitions, transform you into the person you were meant to be --- could be the same ones God may want you to use to help others with theirs, too. You see, two things happen when God blesses a person with such precious gifts of talent --- you are responsible to hone, develop, and nurture it, and --- you are definitely required to use it for yourself and for others, too.


From Sydney Smith come these beautiful lines…..

Whatever you are from nature, keep to it,
Never desert your own line of talent,
Be what nature intended you for
And you will succeed.
Be anything else, and you will be tens -
thousands times worse than nothing.


P.S. I left their house that evening with the feeling that I have managed to drive home the point because 'have never seen Yna smile such a lovely smile before. Lolz!! Actually, she IS a pretty girl. :-)


posted on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 2:32 PM