I think one of the most frustrating things for me around this time of year is trying to carve a pumpkin.

I'm not the best at art, but I have a very creative mind. Part of this is due to my work in videography, photography, and other forms of media. I see a project or creation in my head the way I want it and bam, it's got to be that way. I'm a tad bit of a perfectionist. Usually, with videos or something else that I am more adept at, it happens.

But with art, drawings, paintings, etc... it never pans out.

I always get these grand and wondrous schemes and designs for my pumpkin, but they rarely turn out halfway-decent at all.

Usually my batman symbols turn into obese flying rodents.

This could be partly because of my lack of artistic ability, partly because of my weakness with using a knife, and partly because I have not had enough practice.

Whatever the case, I always start off thinking I could do this or do that, and I am never satisfied with the end result.

I think a lot of us look at ourselves (our looks, our positions, our finances, our current place in life, and more) and think quietly "if I was God, I could do so much better on crafting me."

We get these grand and wondrous ideas of how to carve the clay, but I am willing to bet that if we were given the chance to truly create, we would fail.

Look at how many different people, cultures, and civilizations were given the chance to create something wonderful, and look at how most of them ended up doing awful things towards humanity.

This is where our faith in the Potter comes into play.

God has made us the way He wants us. With all our strengths and weaknesses. He has designed us for the road ahead. He has carved us with His likeness.

All we need to do is let His light shine through our carving.

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139:13-16‬ ‭ESV