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The Shape of Character

Yesterday nite at LG, we were asked, how has God been shaping us?

I remembered years ago, God showed me two pictures. One was a picture of a raw ore and the other was the picture of a sparkling diamond. God said He would shape me and mould me from the ore into the diamond. Years later as I evaluate how God has shaped me, all I can say is that I have become a more patient person than I was years ago. I've learnt to let things take its shape and let God step in when it is not my time to do anything or say anything.

Yet it's not my past that God wants me to measure myself against i.e "how bad I was and how better I have become". The molding process never stops and continues on. Before I pat myself on the shoulder too quickly, God has placed even more patient people around me. One is my fellow colleague and friend and the other my husband. Each time I am about to congratulate myself for having come 'so far' in my journey, I look at these people whose patience exceeds the normal range for me as far as I am concern. I am placed in the company of these people for one simple reason I believe, I still have a long way to go and I must not be contented with the seemingly improvements I've made.

Yet my failings, imperfections and 'not there yet' notions should not stop me from serving the Almighty. These failings, imperfections will be corrected as I go along and let God do his work. As a vessel is not completed overnight, so my character and spirituality continues to spin on the Potter's wheel.

Character and Spirituality will be tested, again and again. Just when we thought we are there, we'll be tested. The timing of the test is not known to us. Often it springs up at unexpected hours and places. When tested, we know where we are and where we stand. The test is not to condemn us but to reveal to us how deep we have grown. Just as the vessel of clay after being shaped, goes into the furnace. The furnace will tell what the vessel is made of.

The measure of Character and true Spirituality is not seen from our achievements but is seen from how we love, how we care and how we respond to the tests that comes now and then when we are least prepared for it.

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