Anyone ever read the story, “You are Special” by Max Lucado? The story of the wooden Wemmicks who give each other gray dots or gold stars as judgments of how “cool and talented” or “lame and boring” they are?
The main character, Punchinello, is filled up pretty much entirely with gray dots and goes through this process of meeting with his “woodmaker” creator in order to learn his true worth.
But my favorite character is Lucia – the Wemmick who didn’t have a single dot OR star on her.
The reason? Lucia honestly did not care. She knew that the woodmaker had created her, and she literally did not care about the judgments of the other Wemmicks.
Let me remind you, though, this means she didn’t care about the dots. But she also didn’t care about the stars.
Her example has always stuck out to me.
Because often, I think we try to teach this lesson by only focusing on not caring about the “dots” or poor judgments of this world. And then we smother each other in praise to prove that “we are good enough”.
I DO NOT THINK IT IS BAD AT ALL TO PRAISE THE PEOPLE AROUND US.
It feels really good to give someone a compliment, and it feels great to receive a compliment, too!
But when we put SO much weight in other people’s praise or lack thereof, we are hitting on two different symptoms of the same exact problem.
We are “heeding” what other people think. We are letting the stickers stick.
Where does our true and lasting joy come from?
From tasting the fruit of the tree. From partaking in the love and glory of God and our Savior.
Not from being cheered on by people at the tree – although this can be helpful!
But from actually going and partaking, without casting our eyes around to see if anyone is proud of us for making it there, or mocking us for actually getting it.
Salvation is a personal matter.
And I think it is good to sometimes stop and check if we are heeding either the dots or the stars a little too much.
Are we concerned that others’ dots will make us seem lame or detached from reality?
Are we hopeful that others are giving us gold stars for the great progress we are making?
Or are we ONLY focused on our maker, and the happiness that the tree has to offer?
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
One Response
Thanks, Cali. I love that book, You Are Special. Read it to my children many times. I find that I have been heading the dots way too much over the past few years. Have had so much negativity coming at me from all around. It got me down. I will no longer “heed them.” I love your insights. Joni