Made on Purpose

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works.

David does not say I feel wonderfully made. He says I am. It is a fact about God's work, not a mood about himself.

Most of us carry a quiet list of things we would change — too quiet, too loud, too slow, too intense, this face, this background, this family. We treat the list as honesty. Much of it is simply a habit of looking at ourselves through other people's eyes.

Marvellous are thy works. If God made you, then the thing you keep apologising for was placed there. Not every weakness is a flaw; some of them are the underside of a strength. The sensitivity that makes you hurt easily is often the same sensitivity that lets you see what nobody else notices.

Start with praise, as David does. It is very hard to hate what you are thanking God for.