I was having a conversation the other night with my friend Danielle. She always sends an encouraging text, link, thought, and updates on what is going on in life. It is a friendship I value very much. She apologized for talking so much. Which whole-heartedly I expressed how there is no need to be sorry. She said compared herself to “not the brightest crayon in the box,” but trying to still say some smart things. Which to my response was we all unique colors, and we shouldn’t feel ashamed to show our color. Then a life-changing point of view came into mind. We are all crayons.

I used to volunteer in a nursery. The toddlers often drew with crayons, as most toddlers do. Fights and temper tantrums would be thrown over who wanted pink, or blue. To my luck, if there was multiple pinks, it was going to be a good day. Tears haven been wiped and drama quelled over the traumatizing fact that someone else had the pink crayon first. They didn’t care if the cow was pink, and the grass was pink. They wanted that color.

But, how true is this fight over crayons relevant today? Each of us our own unique shade. Beautifully and wonderfully made by God. Some neon, some pastels, others a dark shade. Yet it is a constant comparison of our color. The desire to be the brightest crayon. The flamingo pink that seems to say the right things, and have life go the way we would like ours to go. However, if several people were all flamingo pink, it would be boring and flat. It’s when our color comes near other colors, finding complimentary colors, where the coloring page of life looks beautiful. Even if it is outside the lines. Why waste our unique color to be a duplicate of someone else?

Sometimes in life your crayon is the one who gets dropped. It gets a little broken, the paper gets a little unraveled. But the remarkable thing is- the crayon still works! It is still that color. Yet, we tend to overlook it as unusable. I’ve been that broken crayon. Why would someone want seafoam blue that is cracked in half, and with torn paper? They would want sunrise yellow, who is bright, unbroken and still perfectly wrapped up… right?

The truth in the matter is, even though I’m not sunrise yellow, or flamingo pink, my color is unique. Danielle’s color is unique. Your color is unique. God made us in our own way. It would be a shame to waste our color by not feeling bright enough. Express yourself. Don’t be afraid to draw outside the lines.