God has placed his unique brush stroke on you.

When re-doing my bedroom furniture, I was chalk paint happy and loved how it came out. However, my husband wanted to help and I let him paint one drawer. Admitedly, I was afraid that he wouldn’t follow the grain pattern right or allow what I thought was the right amount of wood show through the paint.

Time allowed the paint to dry and the final look to be revealed. Brady put the drawers back together and assembled the dresser to put my creative heart in awe. Except, I saw the one drawer he painted. It was completely slathered in paint and looked different than all of the ones I painted.

In art, brush strokes are a “the configuration given to paint by contact with the bristles of brush”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Simply put, this is the finishing touch of the painter’s creativity,  the remaining shape once the brush is lifted up.

There may be many a hundred thousand others with the same PAINT as you,  but there is no one else who possesses the same brush strokes that you do.

The world needs your originality, your talents and your inimitable anointing.

The thing that is distinct about you is what sets you a part.

 It brings a unique emphasis to your calling.

Instead of talking yourself out of doing what you were created to do, it’s time to

OWN YOUR BRUSH STROKE.

Perhaps you are trying to use someone else brush strokes because it works for them. 

My three year old son has a pair of shoes he loves to wear, but they aren’t quite his size. So every time he goes to jump on a rock or skip down the road, he slips and falls down. 

Perhaps you also are wearing shoes that don’t fit. 

You keep falling down when you try to run, you scrape your knees when you try to land the jump. It’s not that what you are doing is wrong, it’s that you can’t do it right because you don’t have the gear meant for you. God has given you specific talents and ways that may not look like other people’s ways. 

Perhaps you are trying to wear the kings armor, but you are struggling to carry it, like David. (Yet, he opted out of the armor and used his sling and some stones because that was what he knew already worked for him. )

Don’t be discouraged. It was never meant to fit you!

Instead, ask the Lord, what is YOUR way for me? What is your strategy FOR ME? 

“What is my brush stroke?” And as you discover it, embrace it and let it shine!

The world needs the light you possess and the way you shine it.

Will you set aside the kings armor and pick up your sling, even if it feels silly?

You never know what may come of your courage.