That’s the brand name of the knife my husband bought me for my birthday this year. It’s designed for cardboard cutting and I am as much in love with the fact that my husband bought me a crafting tool as I am enamoured with the clean cuts this blade leaves on corrugated brown.

The handle is comfortable, the dark surface is cool, the tiny teeth mean I’m not worried about my toddler coming too close when I make something in her vicinity. It’s not a needle-point, so it’s not as if I can make super tight turns or curved corners. I still need a boxcutter to go over those sorts of outlines multiple times. But it’s much safer and trumps the boxcutter in speed when it comes to straight lines and large shapes. There are simply positions you don’t take with a boxcutter but I’m not afraid to cradle the Canary close to me for more leverage.

The Canary knife is designed to slice through thick corrugated cardboard with ease. Thinner cardboard requires more care since the Canary can cut through so easily. Sometimes I resort to my large craft scissors for thick-paper/thin-cardboard shapes. Still, if I can, I’ll use the Canary because unlike the crushing pressure of craft scissors, the Canary preserves the corrugation beautifully.

It’s not all-purpose. I thought it could be when I first got it. I was disappointed when it wasn’t. But then I realized that the Canary, like all the other tools I am learning to employ in cardboard, excels at its intended uses and then some. And I realized tonight, as I admired the clean cuts once again (there really is just something about cardboard crafting that I love!), that I’m a Canary as well. I beat myself up for not excelling at all things but I’m not all-purpose, either. I can be applied to a lot of situations but there will be some that I am great at and some where I’m not so great and that’s okay. Maybe I’m even more flexible than a Canary because I can grow, but I’m finally, slowly (oh so slowly) realizing that there are some things I am great at and some that I’m not great at… and it’s okay.

This was a very long post to say that I’m a tool. Thank you, I’m here all week.

But in all seriousness, last year I struggled so hard to find anything good with myself. This year, I am seeing that God does use me in different capacities and that my purposes are important. Case in point: This week my family was at the church working together to organize materials for the youth group night. If we didn’t do that work, someone else would have for sure, but the people directly involved in youth fellowship already spend plenty of time planning and leading.

Please note that I’m not saying this to get a pat on the back. Up until tonight, I looked down on all my efforts. The constant words in my head were “not good enough,” but I realize now that this is wrong. Our part was still important to the greater work at hand. In the transition to parenthood, I may have lost sight of the fact that God’s design does include me, but it’s coming into view now. I’m slowly seeing again that God uses us all in different capacities to great impact in His work.

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This post absolutely not sponsored by Canary.