What Really Matters

"But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’" - 1 Samuel 16:7

David, the youngest son of Jesse, wasn’t the one anyone expected to be chosen as the next king of Israel. He wasn’t the strongest or the tallest, but God saw something in David that no one else did. He was noticed, anointed, and called to be a champion, not because of what others thought about him, but because of what God thought about him.
 
Max Lucado’s story You Are Special is a beautiful reminder of this truth. In the story, Punchinello, a wooden character, is covered in gray dots (stickers given by others who thought he wasn’t good enough). He wasn’t fast enough, smart enough, or skilled enough. But then Punchinello meets a girl with no stickers, no stars, no dots. She tells him about Eli, the craftsman who made all the Wemmicks. When Punchinello meets Eli, he learns something that changes everything: the stickers only stick if you let them.

Eli tells Punchinello that his value doesn’t come from what others say about him but from what Eli thinks of him. The more Punchinello trusts Eli’s love, the less the stickers matter. That’s the same love God has for you.
 
The world loves to hand out stickers or labels based on what you do, what you have, or how you measure up. But God doesn’t see you the way the world sees you. He doesn’t look at your outward appearance or achievements. He looks at your heart. And when He sees you, He sees someone He created, loves, and has a purpose for.

You might feel covered in gray dots, weighed down by the opinions and judgments of others. But the more you trust in God’s love for you, the more those labels will lose their power. What He says about you is what truly matters. You are chosen, loved, and enough because He says so.
 
Stop letting the stickers stick. Choose to believe what God says about you. When you trust His love, you’ll find the freedom to live as the person He created you to be. The world’s labels don’t define you, only God does.