Children’s Book Take-Away

I cannot recommend this book enough to children and adults. Here’s why:

The story is about a village of wooden people who give star and dot stickers based on their judgement of each other. The main character is one who unfortunately has received many dot stickers in his lifetime and they are keeping him down. That is until he meets a girl who has no stickers on her good or bad. She directs him to their maker, the wood carver. There he learns the stickers only stick if they matter to the wearer. The carver reassures the main character that he was made perfectly and to keep coming back to visit him to help him start to realize that.

This book has lived in my head for many years now but it’s worth pointing out to anyone who may not have picked up on the lesson.

Judgment is not for us to do. We feel judged because we are judging. If we want to stop worrying about what other people thing about us, we first need to put down our own of box of stickers.

When someone tries to stick a dot sticker on you, remember who’s opinion really matters.

But with refusing dots also comes refusing stars.

Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

‭Matthew 7:1

It can be tempting to refuse the dot but take the stars and wear them proudly. But that’s still basing your self worth on someone else’s opinions. Compliments are nice but we need to resist the temptation to feed too much into them all the same.

The problem with that is people. People will let you down. People are fickle. People changed their minds about you. People can let a bad day affect their opinion of you. Setting your self-worth on another human being is setting yourself up for heartbreak.

Put your self-worth in God's hands. The more we learn of God’s love for us the less the stickers others put on us will hold. His opinion of you is what you should be seeking. People will let you down, God never will.

This lesson came into practice during my latest dip of depression. I typically fight thoughts and feelings of being unloved. I caught myself seeking that from my husband in case he was also in a bad mood and might unintentionally set me lower into my depression. That was when I realized just how much I put on my husband's shoulders. While it isn’t a bad thing that I feel loved by him more than anyone else, to put my entire self-worth on him is too much for any human being. He is human and can have bad moments too. It is for this reason I find I dip so low whenever he is mad at me. So this time I turned to God instead.

With every post on this blog, I expose myself to the opinions of others. I fear the stars just as much as the dots. Because stars will lead me to fall into the temptation to build my worth on them rather than Him.

‬So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

‭2 Corinthians 5:17