I am personally afraid of my sewing machine, but when Ruthie asked me to help her with the Build-a-Bear kit she got for her birthday, I thought, How hard can it be? The box says, "Age 6+." I tossed aside the directions and showed her how to stitch around the thing. Like me, Ruthie is easily bored, so I ended up finishing the project. I realized there was a problem when I started to stuff the last arm. I retrieved the directions and found that bear bottoms are better places for "whip stitches" than bear arms.
When I held Ruin-a-Bear up and examined her clubbed arm, I felt depressed and slightly mad at my friends who sew beautiful PJ's for their kids at Christmastime and put away peaches. I wanted to throw the bear against a wall and run away to an eternal library. Thankfully, when Ruthie saw her finished project, she grabbed it, hugged it, and said, "I'm going to sleep with her every night!" (Phew!)
I'm OK with not being good at everything I put my hand to. I know what I am good at. It's not sewing. I won't be opening a seamstress shop any time soon.
Do you ever come across people trying to do something they weren't meant to do? Anyone can learn a new trick, but may not be a "natural" at it. It's a beautiful thing to stay happily on the path you landed on naturally (i.e., were gifted by God to do).
I can learn to sew, and perhaps should, for the sake of my four daughters. OK, that's it. I'm going to start. Tomorrow.
What comes naturally for you?
1 comment:
This has been a theme of several conversations between my husband and I lately. He notices how certain things come naturally to me...like looking into a near empty fridge and coming up with a yummy lunch for the kids, or setting up a dinner party to entertain 10 adults and 15 children, staying as calm as a cucumber the whole time. These are things that would have him in a ball of anxious nerves. Yet, he can spend hours organizing our finances on the computer, having our net worth updated at a moments notice, or planning out our get out-of-debt plan on an Excel spreadsheet that can be modified and recalculated instantly. I couldn't even get a bill paid on time when I was financial responsible for myself! We've been trying to recognize these individual gifts in each other and marvel at how God brought two unlikely, yet totally complementary people together. I've come to recognize those areas where I'm not gifted, where it doesn't feel "natural" and I final realize that it is not where I am gifted...and that I should ask for help.
Danielle
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