Hammer on Anvil '

Adjectives are words that describe something.  A person can be old or young, short or tall, nice or mean, silly or serious, etc.  Objects can be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple, and they can be square, circular, or triangular.

When we look at the adjectives that describe people, we find that many of them are subjective; they only work when the person being described can be compared to other people.  When you call a person tall, you’re not truly saying that they are tall; you are saying that they are tall compared to others.  If they were not taller than others, you would not describe them as tall.  This is the case of many (but not all) of the adjectives that we use to describe ourselves.

There are a few points I want to make with this.

Firstly, God gives everyone gifts and He delights in variety.  If you want to know of several ways that God delights in you, simply compile a list of adjectives about yourself.  Some people are funny, witty, and popular.  Others may be shy, smart, and introverted.  These traits are neither good nor bad.  God uses all of them and He delights in all of them.

Picture a scale with one trait on one end and its opposite on the other end (i.e. short/tall, serious/silly, introverted/extroverted).  God didn’t make us all the same.  That would be boring and we’d probably drive each other crazy.  God took all of those scales and he chose what would make up you – the unique combination that would make you special.

We sometimes look at these traits that God has given us and assign values to them.  Maybe we think it’s better to be tall than short or better to be popular than shy.  But God doesn’t view it that way.  He doesn’t make anything second rate.  To illustrate my point, consider Down Syndrome.  Many people consider Down Syndrome to be some horrible disease, but you know what?  I don’t know that I have ever seen a person with Down Syndrome who was not smiling.  I wish to God that I was that happy.  What a blessing.

My second point is this: since adjectives are used to compare ourselves to others, we need to be cautious that we do not become prideful.  We all have some trait or skill that exceeds other people.  If you want to keep your pride in check, just change who you’re comparing yourself to.  Instead of comparing yourself to others, compare yourself to God.  Now what adjectives can be used to describe you?  Certainly nothing flattering.

Lastly, there are some adjectives that don’t require comparisons.  You can describe a tomato as red without comparing it to a carrot.  When these adjectives are used with people, they describe our shared humanity.  We have all been sad, afraid, worried, and defeated and we have all been happy, courageous, calm, and victorious.  We need to never forget that we are all God’s children.  We are all sinful and need Jesus Christ.

Who knew that there was so much we could learn from a single type of word?