In my article, 11 Spiritual Truths You May Want to Remember, I listed 11 short spiritual truths. It received a very positive reaction, but some people wanted a little more information about what I meant. So I’m going to take each spiritual truth I listed and expand on it, each in its own article over the next 11 weeks.
Spiritual Truth #6: Don’t give your power to anyone. You are the author of your own life. When you give someone else the pen, you give them the power to change your story. But you’re the one who has to live it.
Are you living the life you consciously designed or are you following someone else’s plan for you?
A little girl sat at a table coloring. A little boy came up to her and said, “What are you drawing?”
She said, “I’m making a picture of a lake, a meadow, and a mountain.”
He said, “Your lake is cool, but why not make it an ocean!”
“An ocean?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Yeah! You could put a shark in there, and maybe some guy drowning,” he said. “It would be cool!”
She looked at him, she looked down at her picture, then back up at him. “Well, I guess I could make it an ocean. But I’m not so sure about the shark. I sort of wanted this picture to be peaceful and full of nature.”
He said, “Nah, that’s boring. Make your scene come alive. Get some danger in there.”
“I could put a pretty sea turtle in the ocean maybe,” she said, and picked up a green crayon.
He handed her a gray crayon and said, “Trust me, put a shark in there. Sharks are scary.”
She hesitated. She didn’t want to displease this little boy. “Well I suppose I could put a shark in there. I guess. I don’t really know how to draw a shark.”
“I’ll help you!” he kindly offered. He took her picture from her and started drawing an intricate shark. Then he took the liberty of drawing a man drowning in the ocean, about to be eaten by the shark. “What do you think of that? Pretty cool, huh?”
She looked back and forth between the little boy and the picture and said, “Well, I guess it’s cool. You’re a pretty decent artist. It’s just that, well, it’s not really the picture I had in mind.”
The little boy seemed hurt and said, “It’s a better picture! You were just going to draw grass and trees. That’s not interesting at all.”
“Yeah, no, I appreciate you trying to help me with my picture but, you see, it’s just that…” she started.
He interrupted her, “Look, if you’re not happy then just forget it. I don’t know why I bothered trying to help you. Here’s your stupid green crayon. Have fun making a stupid picture.” The boy stormed off.
The girl called out to him, “Wait, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
But the boy was gone. The girl felt bad. She had hurt his feelings. She stared at the picture of the shark for a long time. She really didn’t like the violence of the scene. She tried to like it; he had gone to so much trouble and all. But try as she might, she just didn’t resonate with the picture.
After a few minutes of trying to figure out what to do, she crumpled the picture of the shark and tossed it in the trash can. She got out a new piece of paper, picked up the green crayon, and with a smile on her face began drawing a meadow.
Who is drawing your picture for you? Do you like the scene they are creating for you? Take your crayons back. Draw your life the way YOU want it to be.
