The newest version of the all important scientific calculator.
My high school freshman came home after her first day of Algebra 1, (Although it’s no longer called that; it’s now called Coordinate Algebra. Doesn’t that sound more rigorous?), and announced that she needed a scientific calculator. Her teacher told her that it was a good investment because they would use it all through high school.
I smiled as I remembered back to math during my high school days. My math teacher had said the same thing, and she was right. I did use it all four years of high school. Being a journalism major, I never used it again, thank goodness! And I can’t tell you for the life of me, what good tangent and cotangent are, but I digress.
Her calculator is a lot snazzier than the TI35, I had, but it serves the same function. The calculator got me to thinking about the things that we require for certain periods in our lives that are totally necessary at the time, but we will never use again afterwards. The first things I thought of were baby things, like cribs, high chairs and car seats. When your child is ten, you can’t get rid of that stuff fast enough, but when they are infants, they are a must have.
There are school supplies like crayons and glue sticks that elementary school kids need, but high schoolers have no use for crayons. Our lives are always changing. Nothing ever stays the same. We are in constant motion like the earth we live on. Our needs change as we change.From babies to seniors, we change and grow.
God is often depicted in the Bible as a potter. “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8
I like the idea of Him molding and making me, but I have come to look at myself as more of a Play- Doh consistency than true clay and I think that’s a good thing. When a potter makes a cup or a bowl, he puts it in a kiln and bakes it into a hard, permanent shape. It will forever be a cup or a bowl.
However, I think that God calls most of us to do different things during our lifetimes. There are those of course, that know early on that they were called to do one thing and they do it well for a lifetime. But, many of us are called to do many different things during the many different seasons of our lives. Those tasks may not always look the same as we don’t look the same.
As we grow and mature and change, what we are called to do often changes too. We may go from being a saucer to a pitcher. I think the key is to stay flexible. Listen for His voice and remember that whether Play- Doh or clay, only the potter decides the final shape, not the medium being shaped. So, we should let go of our desire to control and see what He come up with. We are likely to be amazed. What do you think? Feel free to share.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂