INTRODUCTION

.Many things happen in life that are unfair or even cruel, leaving a person feeling left out and isolated. But frequently, even though we feel this way, we will go right on with our daily routines as if nothing is wrong, working by habit and appearing confident on the outside. But on the inside, we are feeling very insecure, hollow, sad and lonely. Life seems like a movie that is going on all around us. We become observers, instead of participants.

If you feel like this, you will be glad to learn it's only an illusion. You are definitely a participant in life, not just an observer. The main purpose of this book is to prove to you how very important you really are as an individual.

CHAPTER 1 - DO YOU FEEL LEFT OUT?

I have always felt left out, not part of whatever activity is going on around me. This started when I was very young. When I was only two years old, my sister and brother were already teenagers and family life revolved around their teenage activities. They called me "the little nuisance" and constantly pushed me aside, excluding me from their activities.

By the time I finally became a teenager myself, my sister and brother were both married and had children of their own. Family life now revolved around adult activities and the adorable little grandchildren. As the only teenager in the family, I was out of place, in the way and mostly ignored.

A friend of mine, whom I'll call Nan, had a similar experience even though her sister was only two years older. Their mother was decidedly partial. She would make clothes for the sister, but not for Nan. She took the sister to dancing lessons, but not Nan. She helped the sister participate in Girl Scouts, but not Nan. Whenever Nan asked her Mother for help, her mother was either too busy or too tired.

Many circumstances like this leave a person feeling left out, unwanted, and not part of the family. If you don't feel like part of your own family, how can you feel like part of the world? Understandably, you just feel like you don't belong.

What changed everything for me was reading the Bible. I hadn't known how much God cares about each of us individually.

Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

God is aware of every sparrow, and of us, who are worth more than many sparrows, it says that He has numbered the very hairs on our heads. This is a very specific detail that illustrates the amazing degree of attention God gives to each one of us. And there are more verses that support this fact.

Proverbs 5:21 ... a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.

Our ways are in full view to the Lord and He examines all our paths. Wow! How could a person feel lonely and left out with this much scrutiny from God?

Psalms 139:1-3 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

CHAPTER 5 - EVERYONE IS UNIQUE

If you're thinking to yourself that everyone else seems to have more Godly characteristics than you have, stop beating up on yourself. If God wanted everyone to be alike, he would have created us all alike. He didn't create us all alike because variety is important to Him.

Look at how many different kinds of flowers there are, and different kinds of trees. There are 250,000 different species of higher plants. There are 280,000 different species of animals. And there are 750,000 different species of insects. The universe is teeming with variety. Each and every snowflake that falls has a different pattern. The lines on our fingers are so distinctly different that our identities can be determined by our fingerprints. Do you think God would have created all this variety in our world and then expect our personalities to be the same? Of course not. He planned for each of us to be uniquely different.

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;...

God wants us to keep growing and learning, acquiring more and more of the good characteristics He desires for all of us to have, but He doesn't want us trying to be like each other, or trying to deny the person we really are. He wants each of us to stay unique. He needs our unique qualities.

1 Corinthians 7:17 Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.

With our special combination of characteristics, we fit in a certain place at a certain time better than anyone else would fit in that certain situation. Look around at the various situations you are involved in right now and see how God is using you in each situation. Because of your uniqueness, you are able to help the situation in some specific way.