The other day, I was sitting next to my youngest daughter at my kitchen table, watching her in her favorite activity—coloring. She loves to draw, and she makes vibrant pictures with a whole assortment of colors, markers and crayons.

This time she was working with her crayons. She had a huge box before her and she had already used her favorite colors before trying out a new one—a white crayon.

A white crayon. On white paper. The two don't mix very well-- and don't produce much of a result.

"This crayon is broken," she announced after futilely trying to color with it. "Let's throw it out."

"Oh, but it's not broken," I quickly explained as I chose different paper, a sheet of pink paper. "See," I said, "now the white crayon works fine and makes a great outline."

The white crayon was not broken, it simply needed a different setting.

If this is true with crayons, all the more so with human beings, creations of G‑d. No person is "broken", or ready to be discarded. Each of us is valuable, and has a valuable contribution to make to our world.

There are times or stages when a child, a spouse, a friend or even you, yourself, may feel like that white crayon on white paper—we're not functioning very well. It may seem like we're broken, unable to make the right impact, or any impression at all, on our surroundings.

But sometimes, all that we need is a different setting; a different background, or a different set of circumstances to bring out our hidden potential.

Find that new set of circumstances. Find an area where you, your child or your spouse can shine--and you'll be gratified by the many beautiful new designs that can be created.

Have you ever changed your set of circumstances in order to create better results?