A Redesigned Life By Tracy SteelSample

Day Three

Sticking to Diamonds or Triangles 

Design principle to ponder: Pattern

Principle helps us: remember who God is or what he desires for our lives if we become forgetful or discouraged whenever life doesn’t go as planned.

From paisley scarves around our necks to mosaic tile motifs on the floor beneath our feet, patterns are all around us. This design principle occurs whenever an object, symbol, or color is repeated throughout a room, swatch of fabric, or piece of artwork. Change the pattern, and you change the look of any window treatment, chair, or office cubicle. 

Patterns are also of great importance to a designer wanting to highlight the uniqueness of the region where he or she is working. For example, chair upholstery or a wallpaper border that has repeating diamonds or triangles works well for a lobby of a hotel located in the southwestern United States. But a designer working in a hotel lobby on the East Coast will use patterns that consist of damask, paisley, toile, or stripes, as the East Coast is more formal than the Southwest in its style. 

God uses patterns of different types in our lives as well. His patterns are meant to catch our attention, teach us, and help us remember who he is and what he desires for our lives. This is by design. God uses repetition in our lives and throughout the books of the Bible to reengage our mind and our spirit because we sometimes become forgetful and complacent in our faith. Or we rebel by surrounding ourselves with triangles and diamonds when God has asked us to live in the midst of stripes or paisley. Or maybe we think we have everything in order, so God places a person or situation in our path that is full of fluorescent plaid in order to wake us up. 

Although God uses patterns for his purposes, we also sometimes find ourselves in unhealthy patterns of our own creation. For instance, what do we do when we see specific things or thought patterns in our mind happening over and over again? Do we ignore them? Or do we grow from the warnings or messages that God lovingly places before us? Look for repeated words or phrases throughout Scripture for they form a pattern and tell us what God desires for our lives and more about who he is too.

God wants you to know more about him so you can place your confidence in him and experience freedom and joy whenever life doesn’t go as planned. Whether you find yourself in a desert season full of diamonds and triangles or in a fancy-schmancy season full of damask and toile, stick to the pattern as God redesigns your life. 

How is God most likely to catch your attention? Through nature? Words? Music?