How Do You Tell Them Apart?

Today is the day we celebrate our girls' eighth birthday.  It's always a fun day full of pink everything. Pink donuts, pink dresses, pink cupcakes, pink wrapping paper, and at least one pink present.  Yes, pink rather rules our lives for the month of February.  Having three girls with birthdays all mixed in with Valentine's Day and we are covered in sparkly glitter and pink everything for weeks.

Twins are fascinating to most people.  The question I always hear is, "How do you tell them apart?"  Want to know the answer?  I can't, not really, at least by looking at them.  They really are identical and the people who say they can tell them apart call them by the wrong names at least as often as I do.  I have trouble remembering my kids' names even if they aren't identical.  I call Hudson, Josh and Josh, Hudson nearly as often as I confuse Bethany and Brittany.  Not a great follow up to my previous post about studying and knowing your children; right?

I can tell them apart though.  Not by looking at them.  They look completely identical.  I can tell them apart by watching them, talking to them, and knowing them.  You see, I could tell them apart before they were born.  They were different.  Very different.  Brittany has always been very energetic and excited.  Bethany has always been gentle and tender.  Yes, their DNA is identical.  Yes, they look identical.  And yet, they are very different.

God giving me two wonderful girls who are technically identical and yet so vastly different has taught me something incredible.  God doesn't want us to all be the same.  Yes, He wants us all to be like Christ, but He has made us all different.  We are different for a reason.  Bethany and Brittany each bring something unique and wonderful to our home.  Brittany definitely brings the enthusiasm and energy and it is so much fun (most days).  Bethany has a gentle, quiet, and compassionate spirit that brings calm and peace to our lives.

Just like God wanted us to have both of their unique personalities in our home, God wants His church to have lots of different kinds of people too.  The problem is that we tend to look around and compare ourselves.  We pick out one or two people that we consider to be the really good people and we think we should all be just like them.  I always talk too much.  Good christian ladies should be gentle and quiet; right?  The Bible says in II Corinthians 10:12 b, "but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."  Is gentle and quiet better than happy and enthusiastic?  Is The truth is that they are both simply who God created them to be.  They each add something special to our home.
Maybe our churches would be better if we stopped comparing ourselves among ourselves and simply compared ourselves to Christ.  Perhaps instead of comparing our children to someone else's we could train them up in the way they should go.  We could help them to be who God wants them to be rather than what we want them to be.

To celebrate this wonderful birthday, I've included some of my favorite photos of the girls.

Can you tell them apart?