Label makers. What a cool concept. Brother offers a label maker with over 50 pre-designed labels. WOW. No more having to come up with categories on my own. They are pre-designed for me. It also has 'recall', for frequently used words. I can also save and print up to 99 of my favorites. What will they think of next?
Have you ever stopped to think of how, we as humans, need to give things a label? Some sort of category that it should fit in. How do we decide what label to give it? Is it based on what it does? Or based on what it is designed to do? Like a stapler. That one is easy. It staples, so we label it a stapler. But did you know it can also be used as a paperweight? Or a hammer? How come we don't call it a hammer? Because it is a stapler, not a hammer.
Why then do we label people differently than we label things? We tend to put people in categories that aren't necessarily what they really are. Let's look at some of the labels and categories we have.
Loser, winner, rich, poor, trash, Deadbeat Dad, alcoholic, black sheep, worthless, good-for-nothing, whore, murderer, etc. You get my point. The list is endless. Positive and negative, we all wear a label. And we have all been labeled at some time or another with names that are not who we really are. Like calling a stapler a hammer. We fell down once or twice and got labeled a clutz, when in reality, we are graceful elegant beings.
Here are some bad things I got labeled with in my lifetime. Shy, fearful, lazy, tramp, drama queen, needy, bossy, pot boiler, liar, hater, player, whore, and so it goes on and on. Every harsh word, every name placed on me, had some influence on who I believed myself to be. Each name, specifically our given name, also has a meaning. My name means "farmer".
In the article, "The Given Names" by Professor G. L.Esterson, it states the following:
"In Judaism, the given name is much more than just a label identifying an individual -- it represents HIM -- his values, his personality, his stance with respect to religious, cultural, assimilational issues, in short, his essence. The given name determines not only the person's character but also his fate, and the name therefore takes on a highly charged symbolic value."
(Interesting how a name determines the character and fate of the child.)
What if....we had the ability to rip off the labels that have been assigned to us that have harmed us, and made us into someone that we are not? Rip off the label of "loser", "lazy", "slacker" and replace it with "winner", "hard working", "productive".
...Oh, but you know, I'm just calling it as I see it! He's never been good at anything. Just last year he was doing this and that....blah, blah, blah!!
WOW! Whatever happened to the possiblity that people can change? That people can grow up and mature and learn from their mistakes? Is it possible to re-label ourselves? I believe it is.
I believe that we can gain a new and clearer insight into who we really are. Or who we were created to be. I believe that we can remove the negative labels that have been slapped on our foreheads by parents, teachers, family, friends, enemies. Isn't it all about perspective? Isn't it maybe about how we perceive ourselves? Is it that simple? No, it's not that simple.
But I would like to challenge you to take another look at the labels on your life, and the labels that you place on others. Can we learn to help each other see ourselves as we should be? Can we help someone rip the adhesive strip off. Like a bandaid, we wear it as a symbol of our pain and suffering. (Wanna see my owie? ummm...no) Tear off the labels that keep you down and replace them with labels of redemption and forgiveness.
Begin to see yourself as God sees you. As precious, lovely, favored, whole, complete, worth far more than rubies.
Try it for a day and see what happens. It can't hurt! I'm gonna go out and buy me a big fancy label maker and start labeling people all over again!
