Do you feel you can never achieve your dream because of your past mistakes?

Whenever women tell me they don’t deserve to live their dream because of where they’ve been or what they’ve done, I love reminding them of something. The Dream Weaver, who put that dream into their hearts, is also a Master Artist — One who specializes in taking the corrupted canvases of our lives and repainting them into magnificent masterpieces.

And if you happen to be thinking, I’m more like God’s practice piece, than His masterpiece, consider this….

In Ephesians 2:10 we are told that we are God’s masterpiece, created anew in Christ Jesus “so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (NLT). The word masterpiece (which in some versions of the Bible is translated workmanship or work of art) comes from the Greek word poiema, from which we get our English word “poem.” Another way of reading that verse is this: We are God’s poem…created anew in Christ Jesus (when we surrender our lives to Him) for great works that He planned for us long ago.

Think about the beauty and uniqueness of a poem or sonnet. A poem is one’s unique expression of who they are and what they want to say. And God says each of us who have been born anew through faith in Christ is His poem — His unique expression of who He is and what He wants to say.

Those mistakes in your life are part of the uniqueness of who you are and the opportunity for God to show how great of an Artist He is. God can take the mistakes you’ve made, the opportunities you’ve passed up, and even the most regretful things about your life and turn them into something beautiful that adds to the uniqueness of who you are and what you have to offer this world.

Your uniqueness is made up of:

•  Your talents and abilities – those things you do really well that set you apart from others.
• Your upbringing – what is unique about how or where you were brought up? Do you have some unique experiences as a child that might be linked to your dream today? Do you have some negative experiences that can help you relate to a specific spectrum of people?
• Your mistakes or lessons learned — I know several women who were teenage single moms. Today they have not only a heart for, but a ministry to other teens in the same situation. What did you have to learn the hard way so that others can be spared from making the same mistakes?

Hand God the canvas of your life — mistakes and all — and let Him show you your true potential for living out His dream for you.

For more on discovering your true potential see my book, When A Woman Discovers Her Dream.